VANISHED
by ULYFERAL
Summary: A large section of Megakat City has vanished. Where did they go? Who or what took them?
1. Prologue

**VANISHED**

Prologue: The Lost Zone

The morning was bright and clear as most days were in Megakat City during high summer. As the city rose for the day, a horror on the level they had never experienced before greeted them. Sometime during the night or dawn hours, one-third of this great city had vanished.

When the Katizens beheld the site, it was as if someone had come along and used a huge spatula to simply scrape a big piece of the city off the ground as if scraping food off a skillet.

Where Enforcer Headquarters had once been only a cement surface that hid the deep basement where the armory, prison cells, and storage areas were located was visible as well as the holes that showed where the elevator shafts and stairwells were. In one large section of the cement surface, water spewed skyward into the air mixed with arcing electrical lines that had been sheared off at ground level.

The scene was repeated everywhere a building had been. It was a shocking thing to see the new skyline that once held the soaring buildings that were the landmarks of Megakat City. City Hall, Megakat Park, Pumadyne, Biochemical Labs, MASA, the salvage yard, and so many other well known places......gone with only their basements left to let anyone know where they once sat.

There were huge patches of bare ground where lawns, parking lots, sidewalks, roads, and houses had been. From many of those spots, open holes for basements, sheared pipes spewing water, and sparking electrical lines could be seen.

It took many days, but the remaining enforcers, emergency services and volunteers pieced together how big a section of the city had disappeared and how many Katizens were lost. The Lost Zone, as it was beginning to be called, was approximately sixty square miles in size, starting about two blocks north of Enforcer Headquarters and running length wise in a narrow band to the bay, just missing the nuclear power plant and refineries. Approximately 100,000 Katizens had disappeared.

Of the important Katizens missing were: nearly half the military including Commander Feral; Ms. Briggs who lived in a condo near the park, Dr. Sinian, and all those other elite members of the wealthy and city council members who lived near her; Ann Gora of Katseye News; and a huge complement of ordinary Katizens.

Mayor Manx escaped because he lived outside the city limits in a mansion in the hills. Professor Hackle wasn't touched since his home was across the bay. The Megakat Natural History Museum and The Megakat Broadcasting System had also been spared.

Two very important Kats were also missing but it would be many more days before the survivors would realize it. The names Chance Furlong and Jake Clawson were just two of so many missing and meant no more than that to the census takers who were collecting the names of those lost. It was only after some of the shock had faded that people noted the absence of the SWAT Kats. This fact added to the recent information that only half the enforcers were still around, heightened the populace's fear on how they would defend themselves if any of the omegas were still among them.

If that wasn't bad enough, the loss of the enforcer building meant no jets or tanks. The only good news was the armory was still intact. Crippling the enforcers further was the lack of upper rank officers, most of whom had vanished. Of the handful that was left, only one was of sufficient rank and experience to lead the enforcers. Major Clawmore and his special ops squad had been out on an away mission in another country when the incident happened.

Mayor Manx had ordered Major Clawmore to return and take command of the enforcers. Clawmore and his squad had been horror struck when they heard the news and had flown back as fast as they could. His first order of business was to gather all those enforcers still remaining, take inventory of what equipment they still possessed and give the list to the Mayor. Manx would do his best to beg, borrow or purchase the replacement equipment that would be needed to protect the city from the surrounding countries.

Without Callie to handle all these details, the Mayor was feeling overwhelmed. He ended up relying rather heavily on Callie's very bright and well organized assistant, Regina Twist, who had also managed to survive, to help him keep on top of what needed to be done to get the city through this crisis.

As the few city leaders left attempted to keep the government running and find ways to fund their meager military force, while the Katizens tried to cope with a huge section of their city gone and mourned their missing loved ones, the main thing on everyone's mind was.........what had happened......were the missing Kats still alive......did the omegas have something to do with this......would whoever they were come back to take the rest of them....... that unknown frightened them most of all.


	2. Chapter 1

**VANISHED**

Chapter 1: Where the Hell are We?

_Four a.m.............._

The early dawn hours are very quiet ones, only a small portion of the city's population was awake to witness the events unfolding that would plunge their lives into a living nightmare.

Around the city, Kats witnessed the world blink. Instead of a greenish sky with a yellowish-orange sun, their new world had a blazing yellow sun, an azure blue sky and a ring of mountains that surround them. The reactions to their altered circumstance varied:

.......A patient's wife ran weeping in panic to the nurses desk, babbling about the sky having changed color.

.......One of several firehouse crews still left in the city, gaped in shocked bewilderment at the sight of the new mountain range.

.......A tired long distance truck driver was crossing the silent city heading for a grocery chain warehouse when the world blinked startling him into driving off the road and into a nearby storefront.

.......An enforcer chopper patrol nearly flew his craft into the flight line he had been approaching when he got distracted by the sudden blink.

......A city transit bus T-boned an eighteen-wheeler when the traffic lights suddenly ceased to function.

......Hydrants all over the city began spouting into the air then shutting off moments later when the water in the pipes ran out. It wouldn't be long before no water ran through any of the pipes throughout the city.

.....Power and phone lines went down instantly except where there were emergency generators.

......Enforcer patrols found themselves momentarily cut off until the back up generators came on line at Enforcer Headquarters. They had many other problems besides lack of communication such as accidents due to non-functioning traffic lights, reaction to the blink in their reality causing panic by the witnesses and the loss of their armory.

Only ten minutes after the incident occurred, the enforcer's dispatcher comm board lit up like a Christmas tree as patrols and flying squadrons tried to report what had happened and demanded to know what was going on, all at the same time.

More worrisome to the enforcers was the fact that in less than two hours the rest of the city's Katizens would be rising to start their day. The katizens would discover no power, phone, or water, adding their panic to those who had witnessed the event and beginning a mass hysteria that could lead to mob behavior. Unfortunately, without radio or TV there would be no way to tell them to stay calm and remain home. Things were about to get ugly.

The officer in command at this hour was Major Preston. He'd witnessed the world's sudden alteration from his office three floors below the flight line. it shook him hard but he knew he had to remain calm. When the emergency power came back on, he immediately began to find out what was going on. When he received the reports from his outside patrols, he knew something had to be done and quickly before chaos took over the whole city and mob violence broke out due to fear.

He ordered his officers to do their best to soothe the populace and to get them to go home and/or stay inside until the government could assess the problem and find some solutions to get them through this. He also ordered the chopper patrols to report in. It was a shock to learn only thirty choppers remained of a patrol of fifty.

He ordered them to return and refuel. He had a feeling Commander Feral would need them as soon as he was notified about the insipid disaster. Once he'd done what he could to control things, he had the dispatcher signal the Commander's radio.

In a dark apartment some two miles from Enforcer Headquarters, a radio toned urgently. Grumbling sleepily, a large paw reached out and grabbed for the radio on his night stand, barking into it.

"Feral!"

"Sir, Major Preston. Please look out your window now!"

Feral blinked at the radio in consternation but did as asked, rolling out of his bed and going to his balcony window to stare out. Not believing what he was seeing, he hurriedly opened the balcony door and stepped out into the morning light and gaped.

"Kat's alive! What the hell happened?" He finally managed to say into the radio.

"We don't know sir but you better come to headquarters asap but watch out, the traffic lights are all out causing many accidents and those that witnessed what happened are panicking in the streets," Preston reported grimly.

"Send a chopper for me!" Feral barked then put down the radio and went to hurriedly dress.

He was waiting on his roof by the time a chopper arrived to pick him up. He put on a helmet and engaged the radio. "Get me Preston!" He ordered.

"Sir!" Preston said almost immediately.

"Tell me what's happened and what you're doing about it so we don't waste more time," Feral demanded grimly.

On the flight to headquarters, Feral listened as Major Preston told him about how the city simply appeared in a new place, about the power, water and communications failures, and what steps he had taken so far.

"Excellent work, Preston. We're landing now. See you in my office in a few minutes," Feral said tightly as he prepared to leave the chopper the moment it touched down.

As he strode across the flight line and headed for his office, his mind was working furiously. Megakat City had been ripped from its place on Aristal at four a.m and deposited here, wherever here was, by someone or something unknown. No way was this the work of any of their omegas. Not even Dark Kat could change the sky. The Pastmaster was able to send them into the past but the celestial heavens still remained the same even if their locale hadn't.

According to Preston, the sky just sort of blinked and became something alien. Feral shuddered. This was worse than any nightmare he'd ever had or could even imagine. He noted the scared looks on his officers faces as he hurriedly raced by making for the stairs. He ran down them and shoved the stair door open to the hall of his office floor. Passing his secretary's desk, he pushed open the huge door to his office and was greeted by Preston and only a handful of squadron leaders.....both ground and air.

He eyed Preston questioningly.

"These are all that remain of our top officers, sir. The rest we're assuming were left back home. The same holds true of our choppers. We have thirty left from the swing shift," Preston said grimly. "I haven't had time yet to do a complete head count of our ground units or inventory check of what's left in our building. We do know everything below the lobby floor is gone so no armory."

Feral winced at that information. "Alright, here's what we need to do immediately besides what you've already set in motion. Get an accurate count of troops and equipment, in and out of the building done as fast as possible; send out all our ground units throughout the city using bull horns to add to the ones you've already sent out to calm the masses; have the communications center get with any broadcasting company left and have them send their equipment and techs here to use our radio system to set up a broadcast......that has utmost priority after the troop deployment. Next I want all the fighter crews sent out to all our borders to determine how much of our city is here, what the boundaries are and what if anything is beyond those mountains ringing us; lastly, have the ground troops be given the addresses for the city government officials and have them brought here. Leave one chopper here to do messenger and passenger drops. That's enough for you to get started on now. Go to it!" He ordered.

Major Preston and the squadron leaders nodded briskly, relieved to have something to do during this terrible time. They turned and left at a near run. Sgt Fallon stayed to see what the Commander wanted next.

Feral sighed and went to his desk. As urgent as everything was to get done, he had to have a plan laid out and none of their emergency ones would work in this instance. He quickly wrote up what he already ordered then the things he felt still needed to be done. Twenty minutes later, he had most of what he thought needed done down on paper.

In another part of the awakening city, Deputy Mayor Briggs had her beauty sleep rudely interrupted. She didn't normally get up until around eight a.m. but a loud commotion outside her apartment woke her. She sat up and listened in confusion. She heard many anxious voices coming through her wall.

Concerned, she quickly got up, went to the bathroom, then went to dress in a sweat suit so she could investigate the gradually increasing racket outside her apartment.

She opened her door to a silent hallway. Going to the elevator, she pressed the button but it didn't light up. Shaking her head, she headed to the stairwell. Opening the door, she was hit with loud, anxious voices going away from her. Hurrying, she ran down the stairs until she nearly caught up with the voices. The ones ahead of her spilled out into the lobby with her on their tails. Everyone halted at the doors and stared out in shock.

Outside was chaos as katizens realized they were not the only ones without power, water, or phones. People stood everywhere talking to each other in excited voices, asking questions of each other. Many had gone outside and were staring at the sky with shocked looks.

Confused, Callie went to the door herself and stared. Her mouth dropped at the changed world. Before she could begin to get her wits about her, she heard a megaphone shouting something. It grew louder as it got closer and soon they could see a patrol car slowly driving down the nearly empty street and bellowing a message.

"_**The city is in a state of emergency. Please go back in your homes! Do not go anywhere! For your safety please stay in your homes! Do not report for work!" **_ The voice repeated its message as it drove closer and began to pass her apartment building.

Callie dashed after them forcing them to stop.

"Go home ma'am. We need everyone to go home and wait until we can clear up this mess," the harried officer said making a shooing gesture at her.

"I'm Deputy Mayor Briggs and I......." She began to shout back.

"Ms. Briggs? Ma'am, Commander Feral said to find you and have you taken to Enforcer Headquarters," the officer interrupted her, relief plain on his face.

"Oh, okay....let's go then.....," she said, starting to get in their car. But the officer stopped her.

"No ma'am! A chopper will come and get you. Go to the roof top. We have to continue warning the populace," he told her then began his message over the megaphone again as the driver moved off.

Shaking her head, Callie turned around to go back into her building where her neighbors were still milling around.

"Please, go back to your homes. I know you're afraid, so am I. We in the government will do all we can to get us out of this mess but we can only do that if you stay calm, so, please, return to your homes and wait there." she shouted to them.

They blinked at her with frightened eyes. Those that knew who she was told the others around them and were coaxing everyone to go home. Callie joined the mass migration back upstairs.

Sighing in relief and reassuring those around her, Callie finally made it back to her apartment without incident. Having no time to waste changing clothes, she spent only a moment using what meager water she had to wash her face and brush her hair before grabbing her briefcase and purse before heading to the roof for her ride.

A chopper arrived some minutes later and she was helped aboard. The flight was tense as the pilot flew back at nearly breakneck speed. He landed quickly, barely allowing her to get off before taking off again.

Sgt Fallon was there to greet her. His face was grim as he quickly hustled her down one flight of stairs and to Feral's office. Stepping inside she noted lots of coming and going of low ranking officers from Feral's desk where the huge tom was apparently gathering information. Off to one side of the Commander's huge office were a cluster of Kats milling nervously about. They were members of the city council. Not all of them were there, she noted, and Mayor Manx was conspicuously absent.

Before she could speak to any of them, Feral had finished giving out orders and had come up behind her.

"Ms. Briggs. I'm glad you're still here. You are the only authority of the government next to myself and these six council members that are left," Feral said grimly.

"Left? What do you mean left?" Callie asked getting more confused by the minute. "Commander, I noted the sky change and the fact we have a mountain range around us. What else is going on?"

"The world blinked, Ms. Briggs....that's the only way anyone's been able to describe what happened. I, like you, didn't witness it but the result is there before us. All I've been able to ascertain since I got here is that our city simply vanished from our world to somewhere else and no one knows how or why. I've sent out my jets to see how much of our city is here and what is beyond those mountains. Our city was apparently scraped off its former ground leaving behind all the basements and subsequently all power and water connections. Only those buildings with back up generators have any power and that's going to have to be husbanded carefully. In addition, I'm having my communications center cobble together a makeshift broadcasting system with the help of those TV stations still here so you and I can try and reach the masses to calm them and get them to stay home," he told her grimly.

"Ahh, that's why you have your troops going around with megaphones," Callie interrupted, nodding her understanding.

"Exactly. We're trying to hurry with the broadcast system before the rest of the population begins to waken for the day and we're fast running out of time. I'm also having my second in command try to obtain a full accounting of how much of a force I still have left and what equipment. Our armory is gone but Pumadyne is with us so we may be okay on weapons. I'm praying that we can hold off a full scale panic before I've finished tallying what we do have but I don't hold out much hope of getting it all done before that happens," he said worriedly.

Seeing the stress and very real fear in Feral's eyes, caused Callie's heart to tighten with sympathy. She may not have liked the Chief Enforcer but when the going got really bad, he didn't fall apart and did what was needed no matter how scared he was. She could do no less in the face of his own bravery.

She reached out and touched his arm in a sign of solidarity. "You've done a lot in such a short time, Commander. It will have to be enough until we have all the information we need to do something about this......if that's even possible. You're right, calming the masses is a first priority. I'll get started on writing a speech to try and accomplish that. I know you've already managed to do a plan of action.....brief us on it please," she said firmly.

Feral stared at her with new eyes. He'd known Briggs for a strong willed she-kat and was greatly pleased she wasn't arguing with him. Instead she was preparing to stand by his side and do what needed to be done to keep the city safe. It felt good not having to shoulder the entire burden all by himself.

Addressing the council as well as Briggs, he said, "Our first priority is, of course, to prevent a riot from starting then we have to find water and food as well as find a way to generate some kind of power. Perhaps we should gather the katizens at some large locations where we can not only keep them calm, but provide food and water," he paused as his thoughts raced ahead at how he was going to accomplish this.

"I see where you're going!" Callie interrupted excitedly. "We have all the katizens bring bedding, personal care items, and all the food and water they possess and set up a mini town of tents in say.....the Megakat Coliseum, use schools, warehouses, and any other large area to congregate the people. We place a mixed squad of emergency personal, enforcers, and other leaders in charge of each group......give them a radio to communicate with the enforcer dispatch, designating one frequency for them to use, and we might be able to not only prevent a riot from starting but keep everyone fed and cared for."

Feral nodded his head in agreement, pleased at her quick wits and planning abilities. "That's exactly what I was heading for. Add that into your speech and I'll work at setting up teams. This is going to take a long time......perhaps several days. Our biggest concern will still be finding water. As soon as my jets return with word of what's beyond the mountain range, we'll know if there's any source of water around. I'll then send choppers out to collect samples for testing."

"So our biggest priority right this minute is to prevent the katizens from rioting then we can investigate what is going on around us," Callie said, summing up their needs. The council members could only nod in agreement since they were far too scared to say or do anything. They could only pray the Chief Enforcer and Deputy Mayor could save them.

Though they had their plans made and that definitely helped, it didn't ease the sick feeling both Feral and Briggs were feeling. They both were frightened to death. Feral especially felt out of his depth here. Nothing in his training had prepared him for handling what essentially was an Armageddon situation. However, there was no one else to take the burden. He and Briggs would have to do the best they could.

"By his absence, I'm assuming the Mayor hasn't been found?" Callie asked breaking into his gloomy thoughts.

"No. I'm guessing if his mansion isn't here, he was left behind. Unfortunately, I just don't know yet," Feral said, shrugging his shoulders.

"What about the SWAT Kats?" Callie asked, next.

Feral scowled but shrugged again, "I'd be glad to see them right now but there's been no sign. I just don't know if they came with us to wherever this is."

"We're here!" A gruff voice suddenly spoke from behind them.

Feral and Callie whirled around to stare at a very grim pair standing near Feral's desk. Callie's heart lifted only to plummet seconds later by what Razor said next.

"Unfortunately, that won't help you any since our hangar is back wherever home is now."

"What?" Feral asked in confusion.

"As you reported, there are no basements......that means our hangar, which is underground, is now back home and so are our weapons, cyclotrons, and the Turbokat," Razor clarified, his shoulders stiff with helpless anger.

_Just an hour and half earlier, Jake who made it a habit to rise early, had been standing near the window in his bedroom when the world blinked. Startled he continued to stare and saw their city was no longer where it should be. He had immediately gone to wake Chance up. They quickly decided they should check the city and that's when they learned things were worse than they dreamed when they found their hangar was gone. _

_The loss of the hangar had been the most crushing blow on top of knowing they weren't on their world any longer. _

_Jake could, given time, come up with some temporary ones from the salvage that had come with them but realizing things could be dire in the city they decided to just come and see what they could do. _

_Chance had been shocked when Jake suggested they join forces with Feral._

"_Look, Chance! We're not home! We don't even know how many of our people are here much less how much city is here but I have no doubt we are not on our world! Feral, if he's here with us, is going to be swamped trying to control a panicking population that has no water, communications or power. I'm willing to bet there's already a frightened mob swirling in the city streets right now," Jake said_ _angrily._

_Chance's shoulders slumped. "Okay, you're right. If we are away from home like you think then we need to band together to survive and find a way to get back. So how do we go see Feral? We don't have any uniforms, weapons, jet, nothing," he said in frustration._

"_I'll make us some uniforms right now, there's weapons in the tow truck, and we'll just have to use Feral's jets and weapons," Jake said with a shrug as he got busy making them new outfits._

_Chance could only shake his head but helped his friend sew. Dressed in their new flight suits, they rode out of the yard using the boosters in the tow truck to get to the city heart as fast as they could.  
_

_On their way to Enforcer Headquarters they ran into the very thing Razor had predicted. Badly shaken and afraid katizens were milling around in the streets, signs of collisions were everywhere. They were forced to pause at a very large congregation of Katizens. T-Bone and Razor climbed up on the roof of their truck and shouted at the crowd to please go home and wait. They would do everything they could to help but they needed the people to go home and stay out of the streets. The fact the SWAT Kats were there seemed to ease the crowd somewhat and to the single enforcer unit that had been trying to get them to disperse for some time, there was relief at their assistance. When the crowd thinned enough, the pair were finally able to continue on their way, reaching the enforcer building an hour later. The place was in a state of controlled chaos. An officer that had spotted the SWAT Kats as they crossed the lobby simply instructed the pair to go up to Feral's office. _

_It had been an exhausting climb to Feral's fifteenth floor office but they finally arrived in time to hear Feral's report to Callie. They were both pleased and relieved the Commander and Callie were here. It would have been so much worse having to deal with just a second in command and Manx in this kind of situation. Whatever they might feel about the stiff-necked tom, there was no doubt he was a good Kat to have in an emergency. _

_When Callie began to ask about them, T-Bone thought it was time to speak up. He just wished his news wasn't going to add to their grim prospects.  
_

Callie gaped at them in shocked dismay. Without their jet, they couldn't help search though they could use one of Feral's jets, those didn't have the same capabilities of the Turbokat but there was no point in whining about it now.

Feral groaned in equal dismay. Though he really didn't like their interference, this time he truly wished these two were battle ready because he needed every trained soldier he could find. They may not be good at taking orders but they were an excellent fighting team and their presence would help calm the people. But without their jet and specialized weapons, their special skills were halved. This was terrible news.

Shaking his head, Feral sighed. "Okay, that's definitely not good news but there's really nothing we can do about it. Our armory is also gone since it was underground too."

T-Bone scowled angrily. "Crud! Well that sucks!"

"It's not completely bad news, Pumadyne is here with us," Feral added.

"Ah, well that helps a little. Okay, you tell us what you want us to do and we'll help you do it!" Razor said stoutly.

"I think being in the broadcast with Feral and I will go a long way toward making people believe we can fix things and keep them safe. Even if we are not being completely truthful about it," Callie sighed, giving a wane but brave smile to all.

Feral snorted but was forced to agree with that assessment.


	3. Chapter 2

**VANISHED**

Chapter 2: Trying to Control the Uncontrollable

Setting up more satellite dishes on the roof of Enforcer Headquarters, the TV and radio crews still around helped the enforcers cobble together a makeshift broadcasting system tying in with the communication's array the enforcers used. They prayed their signal would reach all the Katizens left in the city. It took several hours work but finally they were ready.

Everywhere, Katizens huddled in their homes and watched the blank TV or listened to their hissing radio for the hoped for broadcast from their leaders. It was with a sigh of relief when the images flickered on the screen or voices came through the radio. For those who could see it, the images were a bit snowy but enough came through to show them the united front of the Chief Enforcer, Deputy Mayor Briggs and the SWAT Kats standing before the camera as Callie gave her message.

_"This is your Deputy Mayor, Ms. Briggs, please listen closely. By methods unknown a sixty square mile section of Megakat City from the Enforcer Building to the bay has been taken from our home planet and deposited here. We that are left of the government will do all we can to find a way to return us home. In the meantime, this is what we need all of you to do to ensure we all survive to return. There are approximately 100,000 of us here._

_Please write down these instructions I'm about to give you. I will wait five minutes for you to acquire something to write with." The five stood quietly as an off screen person kept watch on the time. After five minutes, Callie began again._

_"First, everyone must gather their personal care items, pillows, blankets and/or sleeping bags, tents (if you have them) all the food and water you have on paw to be used by your family. Be sure to use coolers and pack ice. Bring kerosene stoves, portable grills, and larger grills if you can, these will be shared with those that do not have them and more will be provided if possible._

_Secondly, we need you all to evacuate to central areas designated for you by your location. This is to allow sharing of food, water, and medical care with greater ease. At each site there will be a small governing staff consisting of enforcers, medical members, and a council member to help keep order and hopefully answer your questions. Supplies will be doled out so they will last for however long we are here. _

_Now listen to where you must go: for those living in the Rockfur and Tonar areas, make your way to the Leostone Sports Arena. Those in the Genlor and Freepaw areas, go to the Megakat University Gymnasium. The Bayport residents will go to the Bayport Community Center. City center will go to the Megakat Opera House or Megakat Sports Arena whichever is closer to you. Beware, traffic lights are not working. Please use due caution, no speeding. You have plenty of time to get there but please get there by end of day, tomorrow._

_That is all the instructions I have for now. Please, I beg you all to be good Katizens and help each_ _other out in this terrible crisis. Insure all your neighbors have been contacted and, if necessary, please help any that need it to get to the evacuation sites...leave no one behind. The enforcers will be stocking each of these places with as many supplies as they can acquire but water will still be precious and power will not be available. Be frugal! No fire pits can be allowed nor candles but please bring flashlights and batteries. More will be handed out to those that don't have them._

_Be calm...be brave...we will find a way to get you all home again. Ms. Briggs out."_

The camera kat signaled they were off the air, allowing the five to relax.

"Okay, now that's done, I'll keep on top of insuring supplies get where they are needed and intercede with disgruntled companies and businesses that will be upset at their goods being confiscated for the emergency. Promises that they'll be paid back might not be believed but there's no help for it." Callie sighed, rubbing her eyes, her glasses pushed up on her head.

"I've got all my ranking officers I could spare manning each of the evacuation points and they report they are nearly finished getting set up. Meanwhile, I have the rest of my forces out there insuring traffic moves smoothly, looting is prevented, and that supplies are being moved at a steady rate to where they are needed. Now all that's left is to find out what is beyond our city and figure out how to get home again," Feral grunted moving away from the makeshift studio that had been set up in his comm center and heading for the door, but, before he could reach it Major Preston hurried in.

"Sir! The jets have returned!" He panted, out of breath from his run down the stairs.

"Good!" Feral hurried past the Major with the SWAT Kats hot on his heels as well as Callie. They ran down the stairs and met the crews that were just pouring into the pilot's lounge. Spotting the Commander entering the room, the ranking officer hurried over and saluted.

"Report!" Feral barked not bothering to wait to go to his office to hear what the kat had to say, there simply was no time to waste.

"Sir! It's the weirdest thing! Outside our city is a huge open plain littered with dozens of communities like us placed some one hundred miles from each other. Frankly, it looks like whoever these beings are, they are collecting places from other planets. Many of the communities only barely resemble anything we would call a city. We counted over thirty such places scattered about but only we had any kind of flying machine in the air. We didn't spot the ones that might be responsible for our situation nor were we interfered with as we flew over the whole area," Colonel Furbinder told them, grimly.

"Did you see what was past the mountain range?" Feral demanded.

"Well sir, that's even stranger than all those communities out there. As we tried to get close to those mountains, I swear they kept getting further and further away. We were running low on fuel and had to give up."

"Crud! That just sounds creepy. Damn, I wish we had the Turbokat!" T-Bone hissed angrily.

"Unfortunately, I suspect those mountains were moving, as weird as that sounds. Wouldn't be beyond whoever is doing this since after all, they can take whole communities from their planets and deposited them here so why would moving mountains be impossible," Razor said grimly, a shiver going down his spine at the thought of just how powerful this unseen enemy was.

"Kat's Alive! How do we find out whose doing this?" Feral asked no one in particular, frustration plain in his voice.

"Good question...wish I had an answer," Razor sighed shaking his head and rubbing his neck as he tried to come up with a plan.

Grimacing unhappily, Feral told his pilots to get some rest, ordered his small squadron of choppers to go out and back up the troops on the ground to keep order then headed back to his office.

Callie and the SWAT Kats followed Feral. Callie would need to utilize the comm center to keep in touch with the evacuation efforts so she continued past the Commander's floor, heading downward, while the other three Kats made for Feral's office

Razor remained silent as he pondered what to do next. When they entered Feral's office, Preston and Sgt Fallon waited for word on what was going on. Feral briefed them while the SWAT Kats went to sit on the couch. T-Bone left his partner alone as he could see his buddy was thinking hard. He, meanwhile, could only stare out at the strange sky and worry about their chances of returning home any time soon.

When Razor finally returned to the here and now, Feral was drinking coffee at his desk and reading all the reports flowing in to him while his radio chattered nearly continuously from all those in the field. At another area of the room, Major Preston was apparently keeping track of where their troops were on a big map on a freestanding board. Sgt Fallon was no where to be seen.

Getting to his feet, which startled his partner who did the same, Razor went to Feral's desk. The Commander looked up and eyed the SWAT Kat questioningly.

"I have an idea how we can find out what's behind those mountains but it will require seeing what Pumadyne has available before I can finalize my plan. A visit to the plant is in order."

"Good idea! I haven't made time to check in with them yet except to tell them to keep their employees there and take care of them. A shipment of supplies went to them an hour ago. Let's go." Feral said, glad to be doing something rather than sitting at his desk. "Stay here Preston and keep me informed of any problems."

"Yes sir!"

Feral lead the way out of his office and the three were soon heading down the long flights of stairs to the main lobby. None of them felt like talking so the trip was made in silence and took over fifteen minutes to accomplish.

Feral had his hummer brought from home earlier because he had a feeling he was going to need it. The streets near the enforcer building were fairly quiet but as they tried to get out to Pumadyne, they encountered many snarl ups which they had to stop and deal with so instead of taking twenty minutes to get to the facility it took more than an hour and a half. When they finally arrived, they were met by the director in the main lobby.

"Things pretty bad out there Commander?" He asked, concerned.

"Not as bad as they could have been under these strange circumstances. People are evacuating as asked, just some traffic snarls which is what took us so long," Feral said, gruffly.

Director Si Mece shook his head. "I'm not ashamed to say I'm terrified about this situation but since panicking will do me no good, I'm doing my best to keep it together. So what can we do for you?"

"Well as you know my armory was left behind so we desperately need weapons and Razor has some idea about trying to find out who did this to us and perhaps get us home," Feral explained.

Mece eyed the SWAT Kat questioningly.

"I need to know what kind of finished projects you have prototypes of that could allow us to travel to the mountains quickly without using a jet. I had a hoverkat, do you have something similar? How about some powerful personal weapons that are light weight but pack a mean punch? Our hangar was left behind so I don't have any of the inventions I'd had developed that might have helped us so I pray you have something we can use," Razor explained.

Mece frowned, eyed Feral a moment then looked away. What the SWAT Kat asked for was breaking all their security protocols but they weren't home and unless he helped them they might never see home again. That decided him.

"Since these are extreme circumstances, breaking security protocols is warranted, would you agree Commander?" He asked, not wanting to cross the enforcer over this.

"Yes! This being an unusual situation we're in, security can be suspended until the emergency is over and we're home again. Staying alive until then and finding a way to go home are our priorities now," Feral agreed, firmly.

Relieved, Mece nodded. "If you'll follow me, I think we might be able to provide what you're looking for." He headed down a long corridor then halted at an elevator. It opened and they boarded. Mece produced a card and slipped it into a slot below the buttons then pushed a series of numbers into a keypad that suddenly appeared from the wall. The pad disappeared, the doors closed and they were soon moving upward.

Feral eyed Mece in concern at the seemingly wasteful use of power on elevators. "I know you have your own power plant and I'm glad to see it hasn't been affected by being ripped away from the ground, however, you do need to husband it since you won't be able to renew its fuel source," he warned.

Mece grimaced. "Yes sir. I know. I checked our power supplies and there is enough to run our plant for about two weeks. However, mindful of what you said, I have already ordered labs not needed during this emergency and other areas not being used, to be shut down and pooled my people into a central area to cut down on power, water, and sanitation needs. The elevator system is vital, however, since many high security areas have no stairs to them but even there we are very frugal with its use."

Feral nodded his head in approval. "Good, I'm glad to hear that. You may be our only way to get home so I am very grateful that you've done what you can to keep it running."

Mece gave him a wane smile, pleased at the compliment and very glad he had such a good staff that had helped him put the measures he'd mentioned in force. He planned to give them all commendations and monetary rewards for their quick action and advice during this terrible time. Now he only prayed they did get home.


	4. Chapter 3

**VANISHED**

Chapter 3: Arming Up and Reports from Home

When the elevator decanted them some floors up, Mece led them down a short hall to a huge open lab. Here many techs were buzzing around working frantically on various projects around the room.

"I've had my people focus only on those weapons that are nearly completed and would be of use to you during this emergency. All other projects have been put on hold. If there is something you can use that is still in progress, I'll allocate more people on it to get it completed quickly for you," Mece said as he led them to the right of the room.

"Excellent. That will definitely save time," Feral sighed, relieved. Director Mece was showing himself to be an excellent planner and able to handle emergencies with excellent aplomb which definitely served him well right now.

"Here we are working on some new style lasers and missiles that it is hoped will penetrate the force fields Dark Kat is so fond of and be much more effective against the other omegas as well. Using all the info we were able to collect on Dark Kat's last attack, we recreated the force field then increased its effects so we could find the right intensity of laser that would penetrate it. We finally succeeded a few months ago and were making test trials on it when this event happened. So far tests results showed they are performing better than we'd hoped. We're nearly certain we've amped them up enough that they'll succeed no matter how improved Dark Kat makes his own shields. As we know, that omega is always one-upping himself each time he attacks."

"Good idea and you're right. That's one omega that does learn from his mistakes," Razor growled, pleased to see Pumadyne was trying to get ahead of the criminals, just as he did on a smaller scale.

"Do you think this will be of benefit to you," Mece asked.

Razor thought a moment then nodded. "If there is some kind of barrier these might be useful. Since the prototypes have performed as you hoped, are they ready for production and can you have enough made up for our exploratory trip...say in a few hours?"

"Yes, we were only tweaking them a little more and giving them the obligatory testing per manufacturing rules before releasing them for purchase," Meece answered. He turned to the head of this project and said, "get five of these ready immediately and have them ready for pickup within the hour."

Though unhappy about the deadline, the project Kat merely nodded and turned to order his techs to get busy on that order immediately.

"Will that number suffice for you?" He asked, turning back to Razor.

"Yeah, its actually more than I need, but I'm sure Feral here could use the others."

"Excellent, then let us go see more." Mece led them to some other projects of which Razor accepted three more and rejected five others as worthless for what was needed. Once done in the weapons lab, Mece led them back to the elevator.

"We'll go to the vehicle labs now," he said as his passengers got aboard and he keyed in the lobby.

"Glad that lab wasn't underground," Razor muttered.

Mece smiled in commiseration. "Yes, so am I. Most all the smaller labs are in this building while the bigger ones are on the grounds behind us. Only our storage facilities were underground and its been a bit of a trial not having access to them but its not a severe handicap."

They reached ground level and Mece took them away from the main doors and down a hallway then turned down another hall before coming to a heavy guarded door. He nodded at the security there who nodded back and swiftly opened the door for them. They stepped outside and walked briskly down a sidewalk to another hangar-like building some fifteen feet away.

Passing another guard and security pass coded door, the group arrived in the vehicle development lab. He moved to a smaller area to the left and through the doors. Here a small group of techs were testing a hover craft very similar but larger than Razor's.

They watched the test trials of the vehicle for over an hour. Razor could see where some serious tweaking was necessary and asked if he could make some changes to the design.

Mece eyed him a moment then nodded. "Jenkings!" He called out to the head of the project.

A tall, skinny, gray and black furred tom, wearing a white lab coat, came hurrying over. "Yes sir?"

"Razor has some changes he wants to make to the Hover Craft 490. Help him all you can to upgrade and alter as he specifies. He and others will need this to see if they can find the ones who have stranded us so all changes must be done quickly. Have all your techs help on this so it can get done faster since time is of the essence here," Mece ordered.

Jenkings blinked in surprise but didn't object. "What do you want to change, Razor?" He asked easily.

"I need to check on some jets first before helping you do what I need. Meanwhile, here's some of the things I want you to start on..." Razor began, pulling the scientist with him toward the Hover Craft that was now sitting on the ground. He spoke with Jenkings for several minutes then left him to return to the others waiting for him.

"Okay, lets go see what you got in the way of a high performance jet that's ready for testing," Razor said, grimly.

Mece nodded and led the group back out into the main hangar and toward an area where several prototypes were sitting being worked on.

Razor spent some time thoroughly going over two of the jets that seemed to serve his needs. He finally settled on one with T-Bone's agreement. He made some required changes and an order for fueling and weapons to be loaded.

As Razor was setting the SWAT Kats up with a new jet, hover craft and weapons, Feral also looked over some of the jets that were ready for production to see what his own enforcers could use, selecting a model that seemed to do what he needed and had the added benefit of already being nearly finished. He also ordered a variety of weapons and missiles for immediate production and delivery to Enforcer Headquarters within forty-eight hours. Satisfied, his own needs were going to be met, he and Mece returned to the labs to see what progress Razor and T-Bone were making.

They found the pair had split up. T-Bone was overseeing the changes on the jet that Razor had asked for, offering his own assistance to get it done quickly while Razor was already deep in the guts of the Hover Craft working alongside the techs.

Feral sighed and went to each to tell them he was leaving. Both gave him a high sign indicating they had no problem with that. Mece escorted Feral back to the entrance.

"Hope you can keep a lid on the population, Commander. I certainly don't envy you that massive job of peace keeping and don't worry, I'll have everything ready as fast as possible. And, if he has time, I may ask Razor to go over the jets and weapons you've ordered to ensure they meed your specifications, if you'd like me to? I must say, that is one very brilliant tom. Too bad he's a vigilante...I could certainly use him on my staff," Mece mused.

Feral grimaced and shook his head. "He is that and I wish the same for my R and D but he chose to be outside the law and there's nothing I can do about that. Let's just hope all that intelligence will get us home and yes, have him give everything a quick inspection...I know his sharp eyes will spot anything amiss," he reluctantly admitted then he turned away and made for his vehicle, he needed to get back to headquarters.

Mece just nodded and waved farewell as the big enforcer climbed in his hummer and drove off.

Both SWAT Kats worked through the rest of the day and night to get the needed equipment and weapons ready while Feral gave Callie an update on what they'd found out at Pumadyne as soon as he got back to his office.

"We lucked out that the present Director seems to have a good head on his shoulders. He'd already began having his people focus their attention on nearly finished projects to get them ready for our use. Except for some alterations Razor felt he needed for both the Hover Craft and a high performance jet, they should be operational in about twenty-four to forty-eight hours from now. I also will have more weapons and vehicles ready by then as well. We should be ready to go out and see who is responsible for taking us within a couple of days," he said with satisfaction.

"Well that's good news. The only thing that has happened since you were gone was a couple of incidents that your second was able to nip in the bud fairly quickly. Short tempers were mainly at fault. We do have some criminal elements stirring up some trouble but, again, Major Preston has been keeping on top of it so far," Callie reported.

"Good, at least we've been able to keep the potential powderkeg under control but the longer it takes for us to get out of here the bigger the explosion will be if people lose hope," he said grimly.

"Yes, I know. I think we should send another broadcast by tomorrow afternoon, just to keep the people aware that we are doing something," she sighed.

Feral frowned unhappily at that but had to agree she was right. The two worked for many hours keeping things flowing. By well after one a.m., Feral finally knocked off to get some rest. Callie, unfortunately, was forced to work until nearly two a.m. before she too could get some sleep. She availed herself of a room Feral provided her just as he stayed in house to be close if needed.

Tomorrow was going to be another long day.

~o~o~o~o~o~o-o~

Back on Aristal, things were more or less doing alright so far. Mayor Manx found himself, unhappily, stuck in his office doing his best to stamp our fires caused by unhappy Katizens worried about their loved ones and whether they would be next to be snatched. Not too long after the event happened, he'd set up a press conference and told the public that they, meaning city hall, were doing everything they could to find out what happened and asked the Katizens to stay calm until they had answers for them.

Meeting with his mini-council in his own home since city hall was gone, Manx, the interim Enforcer Commander and the few council members that were left, discussed what to do about the many big holes in the ground that were the basements for some homes, businesses, and more dangerous places like the enforcer's armory.

Major Clawmore stood up and got their attention. "Sir, we need to immediately declare the area of the missing buildings to be off limits to anyone but authorized personnel which would be my enforcers. We can't afford looting to occur nor accidents from people falling in the holes. Also the danger of criminals getting into our very open armory is something I don't even want to have to be worried about."

"Oh my! You've very right. Take care of that right away. Do you have enough enforcers to do this?" Manx asked concerned.

Clawmore grimaced, shaking his head. "No sir, which is why I sent an all call out to the private sector for security forces to augment us. I managed to get over a 100,000 to respond and have them forming a solid perimeter around the lost section of the city as we speak."

It was Manx's turn to grimace unhappily. This meant more money out of their already lean coffers but for once he knew there was no choice so didn't object. "I understand, Major and thank you for getting that set up so quickly," he said instead. "Has there been anymore information from our scientists as to how this happened and if there's any hope of our missing being returned?"

Clawmore sighed and shook his head, his expression even grimmer. "I'm afraid not, sir. We've combed through everything and found nothing to tell us how this happened nor who is responsible. The eggheads have been forced to say an outside force, most likely alien, was responsible. They are probably right about that since nothing else can explain it. They've also said that whatever happened, if there's any chance of them coming back, it will have to be them that finds a way to do it."

"Which leaves us to just sit it out and wait," Manx finished. "What about the threat of the omegas?" This was his main worry with Feral, a huge number of enforcers, and the SWAT Kats (apparently) missing.

"We just don't know, Mayor Manx. Until they show themselves, we have no idea how many of them are still here with us. I've done my best to be prepared but without our armory and Pumadyne, I'm not certain we'd win against them and that worries me a lot," Clawmore admitted, concerned.

"That is not good news," CouncilKat Lorrimore said, eyes wide with fear. A mutter of unhappy agreement rose from the rest of the council.

Before Clawmore could say anything more a knock was heard on Manx's study door.

"Yes?" Manx called out.

Manx's butler poked his head in. "My apologizes, Mayor, but there is a person here who says he has something important to say to the council and won't take no for an answer."

Frowning, Manx asked, "who is it?"

"A Professor Hackle, sir."

"Hackle?" Manx looked confused, not recognizing the name.

"He's the inventor of robots. He was the one who activated the Metallikats," Clawmore spoke up.

"What? Why would he want to talk to us...never mind...just let him in," Manx told his butler. Seconds later, Professor Hackle hobbled in, the door closing behind him.

Manx eyed him but it was Clawmore that asked, "what do you want professor?"

"Forgive the interruption, gentlekats, but after much thought, I felt I should come here to offer my assistance. I know from the reports I've gotten, that the city is very short of any high powered assistance should the omegas be here rather than gone with the other part of the city."

Clawmore frowned, "you seemed well informed, professor, considering how far out the loop you are."

"I still have my contacts in the weapons world, sir. What I offer is the assistance of my one story tall robot, Cybertron II. It could help you should Dark Kat or Dr. Viper show themselves. I cannot sanction killing for any reason nor violence but do understand the need to prevent these two serious threats to the city be stopped the moment they appear. So I would be willing to allow my robot to be used to capture these two should they be here and prevent harm to Kats and to lessen property damage," Hackle said, earnestly.

The council, Mayor Manx and Clawmore stared at him thoughtfully.

"Well, unless Major Clawmore has a serious objection, I am willing to agree to the assistance offered by you, sir," Manx said slowly.

"I have no objection, Mayor. By its sheer size, it should, hopefully, be able to take care of our serious hole in our defenses. But what about the Metallikats themselves? They are still a threat too," Clawmore asked.

"My two nightmares are safely deactivated. I checked myself before leaving for here," Hackle reassured them all.

Sighing in relief, the Mayor made the decision to use the robot and left it to Clawmore and Hackle to arrange the method by which the robot could be summoned when needed. He felt better knowing their chances of staying in one piece with this back up insurance had now increased by ninety percent. Now if only he could keep the city Katizens appeased for however long it took for their missing loved ones and the rest of the city to return.


	5. Chapter 4

**VANISHED**

Chapter 4: Unexpected Help

The next morning, Feral woke to a fairly peaceful city, or as best as could be had for a city totally displaced in space. When he checked in, Major Preston had a current report ready for him on how the evacuation sites were holding up. So far so good, he noted. Supplies were holding which he expected but then it had only been twenty-four hours, wait until it was several days...he shuddered thinking about that as it could get soo ugly if they were here too much longer.

Callie appeared shortly after he got to his desk and he silently handed the report over to her as she drank the coffee Sgt Fallon had given her.

"Well, so far so good," she sighed, echoing his thoughts from moments before. She set the report back on his desk. "Any word yet from the SWAT Kats on their progress?"

"No, but then I didn't expect any, its only been a little over fourteen hours since they started to work on the alterations," Feral grunted.

Before she could say anything more, a sudden commotion at the door of Feral's office, drew their attention.

A small knot of enforcers were guarding someone at their center as they maneuvered their way through the door and up to the desk. Major Preston who had come in behind them, saluted the Commander.

"Sir, Viper and Hard Drive managed to slip into the building then boldly went up to the front desk. They demanded to be taken to you." He signaled the enforcers to move aside and there stood the two omegas.

The pair eyed the enforcers then Feral balefully but made no hostile moves.

Shocked, Feral stood up and came down from his desk. Callie wisely stayed back and behind him a little while eyeing the pair suspiciously.

"Why are you here?" Feral asked, sharply.

"We can't very well take over a city that issssn't where it belongsssss," Viper hissed, sibilantly. "I ran into Hard Drive asssss I wasss making my way here. We agreed to bury our differencesss with each other and you, to offer what asssssissstance we can to get ussss out of thisss missserable place."

Feral blinked in surprise then frowned. "What help can you offer? None of your skills are useful here?" He asked skeptically.

"We won't know until we find out what'ssss going on firssst," Viper retorted.

"We can't just sit by and do nothing and I, for one, have no intention of sitting in some evacuation site waiting for you to get us out of here so here I am!" Hard Drive added, in his usual arrogant manner. "I may be able to determine who or what has got us if you're able to pick up a carrier wave from the source," he added.

Feral's eyebrows rose at that suggestion. 'Well, well, Hard Drive just might have something there,' he thought, cautiously optimistic.

"Hmm, its possible but we wont know until we try to reach past those mountains," Feral mused aloud.

"What's the problem? I know you have jets so why can't you just fly out there and find out?" Hard Drive asked, sarcastically.

"Because the mountains move every time we try to get close," Feral told him bluntly.

Hard Drive gaped at him, his cockiness thrown by such a thing being possible.

"An advanced civilization mosssst likely then...just asss I ssssussspected," Viper mused, upset but not completely surprised by this development. "What issss the ssssituation now and what kind of sssupport do we have to try and ssssave ussss?"

Feral stared at Viper in mild surprise, but shook it off. Since Viper had guessed what had taken them, he'd best bring the omega up to date. Keeping things from him would be counterproductive to getting them out of here though he was loathed to accept this creep's help.

"Good guess! We're not in great shape as we lost our armory, a good portion of our forces, equipment, and vehicles. Present problem is keeping the large chunk of population that's with us from panicking, while we try and find a way to get us back home."

Viper eyed him thoughtfully. "What'ssss the picture beyond our city?"

"We're on a huge, flat plain with some one hundred other displaced societies. No one else seems to have flight power except us. We do have Pumadyne with us so have begun to rearm what forces I have left and have planned a mission to try and breach those mountains," Feral briefed him.

Viper thought a moment then said decisively, "I don't have my lab asssss it wasss left behind when we were taken ssso I only have a few of my petsss with me. But I am a scientist and have extraordinary sssskillsss that maybe of usssse to you. I would be willing to go toward thossse mountainsss with your team and help figure out how to get ussss back."

"I don't trust either of you but I'm not stupid enough to turn down any kind of help to get us home. However, you will be under constant guard. That's the deal, take or leave it. If you turn it down, you'll spend the rest of the time we're here in a cell we'll make for you."

Viper nodded as did Hard Drive. "Understood and agreed to," Viper grunted then asked another question, "are those miserable SWAT Kats here?"

Feral gave the mutant a grim smile. "Yes they are but without their own equipment, missiles, and jet. Pumadyne is making something up for them for the mission."

Viper nodded. "I may hate them but Razor is smart so it is good he is here," he said coldly. "Who else is going on this mission?"

Feral eyed him thoughtfully. Though insane, the lizard was intelligent enough and sensible enough to set aside his animosity to work with them...which felt really creepy...but he needed to set aside any reservations he had and work them into the tentative team he had planned for the mission.

"I was sending my second in command as I am needed here to keep things together. A riot would just add to our problems of getting home..." he started to say before he was interrupted by an unexpected source.

"No, Commander. I need you to go on this mission. Major Preston is handling things well for now but you have the battle knowledge and skills to aid this rather odd team. With you along, it would raise our chances of success. You need some other scientists as well as any fighters you deem will help as well to get the information we need," Callie said bluntly.

He blinked at her in shocked surprise at her command decision. She normally bowed to his authority in situations like this but here she was taking charge but he didn't snap at her because she was right.

"Very well, Ms. Briggs. I'm forced to agree with you on this. Alright that makes five so far. The Hover craft does not hold more than twenty so...hmm one team of black ops...and a couple of scientists to augment Viper and Razor, I think. However, I have no clue where to find the right kind of scientist we need. I suppose I can ask Pumadyne..." he said, his mind already running ahead.

"What about that guy, Greenbox? I saw him in prison and heard he's an inventor and really smart. Would he do?" Hard Drive suddenly spoke up.

Feral blinked in surprise. "Uh...well I don't know if his expertise will help in this instance, but...guess it wouldn't hurt to find out."

"Looks like you have your work cut out for you over the next few hours Commander. When did you hope to leave on this mission?" Callie asked, concerned about time rushing by.

"Later today or tomorrow morning, I was hoping," Feral told her. He focused his attention on the two omegas. "For now, you two will remain here and wait. Preston, leave a guard of six to watch over them and get me the best black ops team we still have here and have them get suited up with whatever they can find then wait here for my return. I'm going to Pumadyne then the prison to gather the scientists we need and to see how far the SWAT Kats are on being ready."

"Yes sir!" Preston said, turning to order some of the guards to say and others to return to their duties.

Relieved to have a set plan of action, Feral went to grab his coat and leave while Callie returned to her duties in the comm room monitoring the population. Viper went and stood near the bay of windows and stared out at the alien landscape, his mind on the problems facing them while Hard Drive settled down on the couch and decided to take a nap, both ignored their guards.

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

As Feral drove through the city toward Megakat Prison, he was pleased to note the evacuation of the city had been completed and streets were calm and clear. He prayed for it to remain that way for at least a few days more.

The prison was fairing well as Feral had insured they had received enough supplies and ammunition to continue functioning. However, they did have some major hurdles to overcome. Without electricity the cells were sealed shut. This was good and bad news. Good because the prisoners could not get out and riot...bad as they had to deliver food and water to the prisoners three times a day and had to pry open the interlocking doors that sealed off each section of cell blocks.

Those first few hours had been hell for all concerned. The noise at first was appalling as the inmates loudly demanded to be released but as the inmates with windows circulated the word, they weren't home any longer...many panicked and had to be subdued with dart guns or gas while others simply huddled on their bunks in fear.

Feral's enforcers had to help the prison guards to pry open the secured door and delivery entry point door to allow the supplies to be delivered. This was where Feral had to seek entry himself. He had called the warden by radio to warn of his arrival so Warden Fang was waiting for him.

As he led Feral up a flight of stairs to the floor Dr. Greenbox was housed, he asked, "do you think he'll be able to help?"

"I don't really know but it was suggested I ask. Being in prison, he might be more likely to volunteer than any of those at Pumadyne," Feral sighed.

"He doesn't seem the type, sir...after all he's not a hardened criminal in the first place. I've tried to keep him safe and out of the main population as best I can as he's still a good katizen even if he allowed his emotions to rule him at the wrong time. I'm hoping he can be a viable scientist when he gets out though they are a clannish lot and might expel him anyway...such a shame too," Fang muttered, shaking his head.

Feral really didn't have a comment to that. He didn't know much about Greenbox except for the two unfortunate incidents that shot him into the limelight and got him a black eye with the public. But, he did sympathize a little...Greenbox wasn't the first scientist whose invention fell into criminal paws nor would he be the last. If he hadn't allowed himself to be taken over by his own invention, he would have been quietly trying to undo his mistakes but this last one had caused so much harm, it couldn't be overlooked.

They reached Greenbox's cell while he had been ruminating. In the cell, the lean built, quiet looking tom, dressed in a bright orange jumpsuit, was sitting on his bunk with his knees up to his chest and staring pensively at the strange sky out his window.

"Greenbox!" Feral barked.

The scientist jerked in surprise, turning his head toward the door.

"I have a proposition for you. You know we're trapped on another world, right?"

The tom nodded his head slowly, expression frowning in puzzlement.

"Do you think you can help figure out how we got here and how to get home?" Feral asked.

Surprised, Greenbox could only stare at him in disbelief at first but then asked, carefully, "I...don't know, Commander. How much have you found out so far?"

Feral grimaced. "Unfortunately, we only know we were taken by aliens, that we're on a huge, flat plain with about a hundred other communities from other worlds, and that the mountains move away from us the closer we try to get to them."

That last piece of information had Greenbox sitting up and gaping at him. "The mountains move?"

"Yeah."

"Uh, then how do you intend to try and find out who did this if you can't get past the mountain range...I'm assuming you found no trace of the aliens on this plain were sitting on?"

"We have a tentative plan to use a hover craft to try and sneak up on the mountains and no, we found only the other races trapped here and they don't seem as advanced as us because we're the only ones with flying machines."

Greenbox settled back and frowned. "What do you want from me?"

"Well, we need enough scientists with us to help figure out how to get us back if we're lucky enough to find out how we got here in the first place. We've already got two other scientists who are fighters and I'm planning on going to Pumadyne to see if we can get a couple more. If you feel qualified to help us, then I'm willing to see if your sentence can be reduced."

Greenbox thought hard. He really didn't care about whether he got out early or not. He was guilty and should be punished. However, none of that would matter much if they didn't get out of this alien place soon. He shuddered to think what the prison would be like after a week.

That decided him. "I'll go. If there are computers, I can try to interpret and reverse what's happened...at least I'm willing to try."

Feral sighed mentally. 'Okay, one more for the team.' "Good!" He said aloud then turned to ask the warden, "I guess we have to pry him out of there?"

Fang nodded glumly. "Wait here sir, and I'll round up what we need." He turned and left quickly.

Greenbox stood up and walked to the bars. "You said there were two others...who are they?"

"Razor and Dr. Viper..." Feral grunted.

"Are you mental?" Greenbox squeaked in shocked alarm.

"Believe me, it wouldn't have been my first choice but he and Hard Drive came to my office to offer their services. They are just as keen to get out of here as we are."

Greenbox shook his head. "Wow, what we've been reduced to is really shocking. What about Dark Kat?

"We don't know. He's not appeared," Feral grunted, shrugging his shoulders.

"I think it might have been much worse to have Viper and Dark Kat together," Greenbox observed, shuddering.

Feral grimaced at that observation. "I totally agree."


	6. Chapter 5

1**VANISHED**

Chapter 5: New Allies

It took Feral and a couple of beefy guards to pry open the cell door but finally, they managed to make an opening wide enough for Greenbox to squeeze through. Since he wasn't a flight risk, no cuffs were put on him as he meekly followed the Commander out of the prison and into Feral's hummer. They didn't speak as Feral drove them to Pumadyne.

Greenbox noticed there was no one about...not on the streets nor sidewalks...everything was eerily still. "How many katizens are here, Commander, and where are they?" He asked.

"About a third of the city with a little over 100,000 katizens...Ms. Briggs but not Manx, six of the city council, over half my enforcers but no armory which is why we're lucky Pumadyne did make it with us and no major hospitals, only clinics. All katizens not involved with keeping everyone safe, fed, and cared for or trying to find a way to get us home again have been congregated in large safe zones. We hope to keep the lid on panic for as long as we can. Water is going to become very scarce within another twenty-four hours so it's imperative we find a way back in the next twelve hours," Feral told him, grimly.

Greenbox shuddered. He didn't want to think about the rioting and killing that would ensue if they were here too much longer. Feral was right to be scared and worried, he was too. He just hoped he could be of help and not just wasted space on this vital mission.

His thoughts were interrupted by their arrival at Pumadyne. Feral gestured for him to follow and the two climbed out of the vehicle and walked to a guarded door. The enforcer on duty saluted his superior and opened the door for them.

Inside was quiet chaos. People were hurrying here and there on various duties. A quiet edge of desperation permeated the air as he and Feral hurried across the main lobby and down another corridor. He knew Pumadyne had its own power plant which was a good thing under these circumstances as they were badly needed during this crisis.

Feral turned a corner and led him down another shorter corridor that ended in yet another door. The guard there nodded, passed his keycard and opened the door for them. It led outside.

They walked down a sidewalk toward a huge hangar. Arriving at yet another guarded door, they waited to be let in then were striding into a huge open area with lots of various doors leading to more hangar like spaces. The one they were passing through now was fairly small compared to the rest of the building.

Here smaller vehicles; tanks, cars, robots, choppers and the like were being constructed. In one corner, several technicians plus a very colorfully dressed individual were testing a hoverkat.

Greenbox realized it was Razor who was carefully piloting the craft across the floor. It glided in near silence except for a subdued humming sound and the occasional blast sounds when jets of air were used to change direction. He and Feral stopped and watched as Razor put the craft through several maneuvers before finally shutting it down. It settled to the floor quietly. The craft was huge, capable of holding over twenty or more people plus supplies.

Greenbox eyed it nervously as he and Feral walked up. Razor noticed their arrival and leaped out of the cockpit to meet them.

"Well, what do you think?" He asked.

"Looks good...is it ready?" Feral asked

"Yeah. It's good to go and I've just been informed so are the jets you ordered as well as the one we've commissioned. While I was working, I came up with a possible plan to get us to those mountains while distracting whoever or whatever is monitoring us. Just because we're approaching from the ground doesn't automatically discount the thief isn't watching all avenues leading to those mountains," Razor concluded grimly.

Feral shook his head mentally. Razor was something else. He had been giving some thought to this very problem, but hadn't been able to solve it yet. Leave it to this genius to come up with one. Well, he wouldn't let pride get in the way...if Razor's plan was workable...and he had no doubt it was...then they were that much closer to leaving on this mission. All that was left was to gather all the troops and hit the road.

"Perfect. That saves me from trying to think of one. We'll discuss it as soon as all parties are gathered. We need to hit the road within the next few hours," he said, agreeably.

Razor blinked in pleased surprise at Feral's easy acceptance, then chided himself mentally. Of course Feral wouldn't argue. There simply wasn't time before the trapped Katizens rioted. The dark tom would do whatever it took to get them home. It was a relief to know they wouldn't be arguing about tactics now.

"Sounds good! My partner is helping Director Mece and your black ops team gather what supplies, weapons, and scientific gear we need for this trip and he has two scientist volunteers. One has a secondary degree in anthropology, which may come in handy when we try to figure out the motive behind our kidnapping and the other is a robotics specialist. It's possible all this is being done by a computer program. It's just a theory but we're trying to cover all the bases we can to make sure this trip counts," Razor told him then nodded at the scientist standing beside Feral. "I see you've found another volunteer as well. Hello, Dr. Greenbox."

"Hello, Razor," Greenbox murmured.

"Were you told Dr. Viper and Hard Drive are joining us as well?" Feral asked.

Razor reared back a bit and stared at Feral in shock. "You're joking! When did they show up or did you capture them?"

"They just walked into my headquarters and demanded they be allowed to join the team. I'm not so certain how useful Viper will be but Hard Drive thought he might be able to steal information from the alien's computers, if they have such a thing."

"Well, now there's a good idea and he just might be able to, but he could also get killed trying," Razor said thoughtfully.

Feral just shrugged. "His choice. He and Viper want out of here just as badly as we do."

Razor could only shake his head. "Okay, then I guess we're set. Let's get the crew together and have a quick powwow."

"Good idea," Feral grunted as he and Greenbox followed the SWAT Kat out of this room and into a smaller one where a large group of people and equipment were already gathered.

"Alright, quiet everyone!" Feral barked for their attention.

Conversation stopped as everyone turned to face the Commander. "Is everyone here that is going with us?" The big tom asked.

"The two scientist volunteers are still in their labs, Commander. I'll go get them," Director Mece said, hurrying away.

"What about Viper and Hard Drive?" Razor asked. His partner gave him a shocked look.

"I'll pick them up when I check in with my second," Feral told him. "Now, someone bring me up to speed on what we're taking aboard."

The head of his ops team cleared his throat and quickly informed Feral of what supplies, kinds of weaponry, and other gear had been readied. While he was doing that, Razor was explaining how two of their enemies were coming along to his upset partner. T-Bone didn't like it but since he had no say in it, he just shrugged and accepted the situation.

Just as the ops leader finished his report, Mece returned with the two scientists. "Now that we're all here, listen up. Razor has a plan. I want any objections, problems, or other ideas voiced when he's finished," Feral said before nodding to Razor to take over the briefing.

"Our mission is to find a way to get over or through those mountains and find whoever did this to us and make them return us home. If there is no one there and it's totally automated, then we'll try and figure out the machines and make it send us home." He paused to eye everyone a moment before continuing.

"We've already learned the mountains appear to move whenever anyone approaches so we have to find a way to fool whatever is monitoring the plain so we can sneak by it. So I propose the following: first, we load up the hoverkat and all of us board the jet we were given, fly to the last community nearest the mountains, land and offload, board the hoverkat and wait. Secondly, our jet and the five others will create a diversion by flying toward different sections of the mountain range at the same time. Once they are actively flying against the mountains, we make our move by racing the rest of the distance to the mountain, hopefully getting over them or through them. It may be we will have to abandon the hoverkat and climb, we won't know until we get there but we'll be prepared to do whatever it takes to find the ones who took us." He turned to Feral to ask, "How does that sound to you, Commander?"

Feral was already nodding his head. "You've seemed to have covered everything. I'm good with it."

"Great. Then I suggest you send two jets per section of mountain range for maximum distraction. With their diversion the rest of us should be able to reach our destination," Razor said with satisfaction then turned to the scientists. "Black ops, T-Bone, and Feral's sole responsibility will be to guard you as you are the most crucial part of this mission. On you lies the hope of finding a way home. Toward that end, ensure you bring whatever you think might aid you in figuring out our captors behavior and motives, if possible, and/or the alien technology that may have been responsible for bringing us here. We may only get one chance at this and it has to count. That's it...any questions?" Razor asked.

"What if whatever or whoever they are, are too advanced for us to understand?" One of the Pumadyne scientists asked, worriedly.

Razor shrugged. "Won't know until we get there. No point in worrying about it because we have no other choice but to try."

"What if one of those other poor suckers stranded here are trying to do the same? We going to join forces?" The leader of the black ops team asked.

Glancing at Feral a second, Razor decided to answer this. If the Commander had an objection then he could interrupt. "It depends, obviously, on whether we can communicate with them or not and whether they will want to join forces. I personally, say we should go for it since the more minds we have the better our odds of finding a way to get home."

"However,..." Feral added, "...we could be attacked instead, so constant vigilance must be observed. Non-combatants, keep your heads down and obey our orders to the letter and without hesitation. I agree with Razor, though. If some of those people out there want to join forces, I'm all for it but I'll be ready with my laser if they turn out to be unfriendly."

"Who's in command of this mission?" Greenbox dared to ask.

Feral paused to eye the SWAT Kats a moment before responding. To his utter surprise, Razor inclined his head toward him, saying he would obey Feral in this and, though not looking very happy about it, T-Bone also nodded in agreement.

"I am in charge of the mission, Razor is in charge of the scientists. Non-combatants will heed the orders of their guards to the letter but mine and Razor's orders supersedes all. Clear enough?" Feral asked, eyeing the group. Heads nodded. "Now, let's cover any minor problems, questions, and ensure we've all gotten something to eat, then we'll leave."

The next hour was used to deal with minor questions about equipment, attire for the mission, weapons, and other extraneous needs. While the group was busy, Feral returned to Enforcer Headquarters to get a current update, leave instructions with Major Preston and pick up the two omegas.

~o~o~o~o~o~o~

Callie was waiting for him when he arrived at his office. He nodded at her as he stepped in with Major Preston behind him. Viper was curled on the couch and Hard Drive was eating a sandwich and staring out the window, their guards forming a wall blocking them from the exit.

"Is everything ready for the mission?" She asked before he could speak.

"Yes. We have five scientists going which include Viper, Razor and Greenbox. Razor presented us with a workable plan and we're just finishing up loading and fueling ourselves before departing. I came back to get an update on how things are holding up in the refugee camps so far and to pick up those two," he told her.

Callie shook her head. "I still can't believe those two are willing to go with you and this is the first time I heard about Dr. Greenbox. Are you sure about him?"

"Believe it or not, Hard Drive suggested him. I went out and asked him and he volunteered. Knowing about computers and robotics seemed a good enough reason to include him."

"What a weird group you're taking with you. Hope it saves us," she sighed. "As for the camps, right now supplies are still holding but water, as we already knew, is becoming an issue and is causing some friction in a few areas that have far too many criminal elements in them."

"I've boosted the number of Enforcers in those spots sir," Major Preston hastily jumped in.

Feral nodded. "Good. That's really all you can do at this moment. Many canned goods have water in them so maybe more foraging for those items can be done and sent to those that need it. Make sure you advise the monitors in those areas to get the word around that any fluids is a good enough replacement for pure water and to save the plain water for their more personal needs."

"A good idea, sir. I don't think we've depleted all the canned food yet..." Preston started to say when Callie interrupted.

"Actually, we are running out. I deliberately kept information about two food warehouses off the lists so they would be on hand for backup. I'll let you take what you need from one and still hold the other in secret for now. The fewer that know about them the more secure they will be."

"Are you sure no one has discovered them yet?" Preston asked, worriedly.

"I had Sgt Fallon check for me two hours ago and they were still secure, thankfully," Callie reassured him.

"That was good thinking there, Callie. All I can suggest is you continue doing what you're doing to keep a lid on things," Feral said, pleased at her deviousness.

"Thank you, Ulysses. Good luck. All our hopes ride on you and the others," she said as he prepared to leave again.

"And to you too," Feral said lightly, then he turned to the guards. "Alright, escort these two downstairs to my hummer. Viper, have you eaten?"

"Yessss." The mutant had awakened when Feral arrived and had been listening to the conversation as had Hard Drive who was waiting with his arms crossed.

"Good! Then let's be off." He gestured for the guards to proceed him so he could follow after and finish briefing Preston on the way down.

Callie watched him disappear with hope and foreboding. She hadn't worried him with some of the other things that were going on because there really wasn't anything more he could do about it and his mission was more important. She would do what it took to stem the rising tide of violence she'd just received a report on.

~o~o~o~o~o~o~

When Major Preston went looking for her a short while later, he found her where she'd spent nearly ninety percent of her time since their stranding, the conference room beside Feral's office. Everything she needed; status boards, stacks of reports, lists, a radio, paper, pens, and two runners, were around her. The runners were eating a meal of canned tuna and drinking soda at the far end of the table and talking quietly to each other so as not to disturb her.

Preston walked in and halted beside her chair then leaned down and spoke softly in her ear, "I didn't tell the Commander just how bad the problem was in the Leostone Sports Arena and the Megakat Sports Arena. I didn't think he needed to be concerned about it. Has there been more trouble?"

"You were right not to tell him, his mind needs to be focused on getting us all out of this mess. Thank you for being on the same page with me. And, yes, I'm afraid small riots are beginning to spring up due to those few rabble rousers at the Leostone and the panicked bullies at the Megakat Sports Center. And I just learned, a middle level mobster has begun a little protection racket which we need to nip in the bud quickly. We're going to have to take the drastic action we'd planned. Did you figure out where you're going to put them when you've arrested them?"

Preston gave her a grim smile. "I found just the place. As you know, we can't take them to the prison nor keep them here so I asked around discretely of my Enforcers and someone remembered something from their patrols that would be perfect for what we need."

"Well don't keep me in suspense here," Callie huffed, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Sorry ma'am. There is a special warehouse where animals are caged while awaiting shipment by boat. I checked and it is here with us and has over thirty huge cages empty and ready for use. I already had my troops drag hay inside, sleeping bags, a few porta potties and two cases of canned food in each unit."

Callie stared at him in surprised pleasure. "I could kiss you! What a perfect solution. Then I order you to round up the worst of the trouble makers and lock them up. Hopefully, as they are being hauled away, the lesser fry will back down and shut up when they see we mean business and are perfectly willing to lock their asses up if they cause trouble," she said ruthlessly.

Many would have been surprised at this side of the Deputy Mayor. None would have suspected how hard she could be when important decisions had to be made. Preston wasn't put off by her attitude and resolve. On the contrary, he was grateful she possessed such a hard core. Right now, a backbone of steel was very necessary.

He gave her a predatory smile, a pleased glint in his eye at the compliment as he said briskly, giving her a nod of respect, "I'll get right on it, Ms. Briggs." He turned and left to carry out her orders.

Sighing, Callie went back to monitoring all the reports coming her way, heading off any further difficulties. She was hot, dirty, and tired but kept all those needs under wrap, setting an example for all those around her to copy. She reached up and rubbed her tired eyes.

A very young enforcer hurried in with a small sandwich and soda for her. She gave him a grateful smile, glad someone had thought of her, before turning to another officer who ran in and handed her yet another report.

Whining about their discomforts would only make them all more miserable and solve nothing though she couldn't help wishing fervently for a nice hot shower. Offering up a prayer to those trying to save them, hoping they succeed, she turned her attention back to her work, reading the report in her paw on sending more medical supplies to the Bayport Community Center.


	7. Chapter 6

1**VANISHED**

Chapter 6: All In the Same Boat

Opening the rear of his hummer, Feral gestured for the pair of criminals to climb in. They did with some jockeying to allow space for Viper's tail. When they were strapped in, Feral went to the driver's side and got in. He was pleased to see his flight suit, helmet, extra charger pack for his laser, kit bag, and a packed meal waiting for him on the seat next to him. A note on top wished him a safe return and was signed by Sgt Fallon. His assistant was a rare jewel and he promised himself to give the tom a raise when they returned home.

After putting his seatbelt on, he took out one of the two sandwiches and began to eat as he headed out into the street and raced back to Pumadyne. This time the trip took only fifteen minutes as the streets were empty now. He'd finished his meal by the time they'd arrived. Leaving his trash on the seat, he grabbed his suit and kit bag, then got out. His two prisoners were wise enough to wait until he let them out then stood patiently while he locked his rig before they headed inside. Director Mece was waiting for him at the entrance.

"The team is already aboard the jet and waiting for you, Commander and your flight squadron are waiting your command to launch. I'll take you out to the flight line," he said briskly, eyeing the two omegas warily.

Feral blinked at him in surprise. "You don't have to do that, one of your security would have been fine."

"No, I'm the only one not doing anything at the moment, sir, so I volunteered myself. Shall we go?" Mece said, smiling quietly.

Feral shrugged and nodded. With Viper and Hard Drive following, Feral and Mece went through the building to the rear exit and out. A small jeep waited nearby. They climbed aboard and, in very little time, Mece swiftly drove them out to the test runway, dropping Feral's group off beside the loading ramp of the jet that was already running and waiting to take off.

"All our prayers are with you and the others, Commander. Good luck!" Mece called over the engines, then he waved and took off back to his building.

Feral waved back then gestured for the two omegas to walk before him up the ramp. Razor greeted him with a nod, gestured to a pair of seats between two black ops, who would act as guards, for the omegas to take and one for him nearer to the front, then secured the jet, before climbing up to the cockpit.

The cargo area in the jet was filled to near capacity by the huge hoverkat. The team members were all sitting on jump seats lining the walls. Feral felt the jet begin to taxi and quickly took his seat and strapped in, leaving his things beneath him. He pulled out his radio and contacted the waiting squadron.

"Feral to flight leader nine,"

"Flight leader nine, aye sir!"

"You are cleared to take off, remember to stay to the rear of my jet and keep a significant distance. Await my order to begin Operation Distraction," he told Captain Rickson.

"Aye, aye sir!"

After getting the leader's acknowledgment, Feral tucked his radio into his kit then waited. When he felt the jet level off some ten minutes later, he released his seat belt and hurriedly changed clothes, shoving his uniform into an auxiliary bag he was leaving on the jet, placing it under his seat again. He pulled his helmet on and ordered a test of the radios by all aboard. The scientists had to be shown what to do by the black ops team but soon everyone had checked in, including the pilots. He was pleased to note that someone had thought of insuring the non-coms were dressed in combat jumpsuits. The multiple pockets would carry most of what they needed while the rest would be in the backpacks he saw under their seats.

The trip took more than a half an hour. The scientists except for Viper and Hard Drive, chatted quietly over the radio to each other. Feral didn't silence them knowing how nervous they were and their chatter wasn't bothering anyone anyway. He eyed both the omegas watchfully but Viper had his eyes closed, apparently taking the time to nap and Hard Drive was looking bored and tense. No one spoke to them and they stayed silent. That was fine with Feral.

In the cockpit, T-Bone and Razor were uncharacteristically silent, each lost in their own thoughts and plans for what was to come.

T-Bone could hear the nervousness of the civilians over the radio and sighed mentally. He hoped none of them lost their nerve at the wrong time, that could spell disaster for them all. He thought them brave to have volunteered and hoped they would be able to get them out of this mess. He grimaced unhappily at the thought of what Viper and/or Hard Drive might do if things went fubar...most likely save their own fur.

Switching to a different frequency to speak privately with the pilot, Razor ordered softly, "keep a low altitude, buddy. I want a chance to view some of those communities were passing over."

"Roger. Do you think we might get some help from any of them?"

"Don't know. If we do, it might not be the help we're looking for or we might get lucky. Since these are aliens we're dealing with, a vastly different point of view and training could be just what we need to get home," Razor mused, thoughtfully.

"Well, then I hope we find help rather than frightened sheep that'll get us killed," T-Bone grunted, more pessimistic than his friend.

Razor didn't respond to that as he stared down at the odd towns they passed. Some looked like mud huts, others were domes and pointed spires, still others were made of things they'd never seen before and one that was a nightmarish mix of things one couldn't even dream much less care to meet the denizens of, that one gave Razor the shivers. Surprisingly, there were a couple that resembled their own city though made of materials he couldn't identify. The last community they passed over before they reached the mountains resembled medieval times with stone buildings and a huge tower with turrets, similar to a castle but not as big. In none of them, did he see the inhabitants, which was a little odd unless they too had consolidated their people for survival, defense, and safety.

"How about I set us down in that forest that apparently was a part of that medieval town?" T-Bone suggested, interrupting Razor's thoughts.

The cinnamon tom looked down and saw a fairly large and thick forest passing below them. At its farthest edge was a field just large enough for the jet to land and take off again. "Good idea, buddy, go for it."

"Roger!" T-Bone grunted, swinging the jet back around to come on the clearing at a much slower speed then went to VTOL to drop down smoothly to the bare patch of land. He then set the engines to station keeping as it was leaving again.

It had taken Razor several hours to make this prototype into VTOL capable. He was relieved to see it working well since he really had only time enough to make one test run. The techs at Pumadyne had been ecstatic at seeing a working VTOL design and were all over Razor as he installed it. If he hadn't needed their assistance to get it in place quickly, he would have done it secretly.

As it was, they now knew how to do it themselves and had the design. He was resigned to losing his edge on that particular area of tech. Now he would have to outdo himself with something better and more edgier than his original design. His thoughts were pulled back to the present when he felt the rush of air when T-Bone opened the canopy to look around for danger.

Seeing nothing of note, the pilot closed the cockpit then followed his partner down into the hold.

"Alright, we're here and its safe to depart. We've landed just outside the last town and there's no one around so let's get going!" Razor announced, signaling the rear cargo door to open. Everyone released their seat belts and stood, grabbing their backpacks filled with the tools they thought they needed as well as survival pacs of food, knives, water, and medical supplies and shrugging them onto their backs. The Enforcer pilot who would take the plane went to the cockpit to wait.

Everyone else off loaded then watched as T-Bone drove the hoverkat out. Once he cleared the jet, Razor signaled the door closed. Everyone was climbing into the hover craft as he finished his task then got on board, sitting next to T-Bone and activating his weapon's console. The hoverkat was outfitted with everything Razor could mount on it in such a short time. He really hoped it was enough to protect them from any hostiles.

Feral blinked in surprise as he saw what looked like a barely visible bubble surround them.

"A force field?"

"Yeah, apparently the guys at Pumadyne were messing around with the tech left behind by Dark Kat for which I'm very grateful as I quickly figured it out and found a way to install the tech into the hover craft schematics. I was worried about not having any shelter from unfriendly fire," Razor confided.

"Wow! I feel better about this mission already," Major Furstander, the black ops leader, exclaimed, lightly touching the bubble and feeling a mild buzz against his finger. The rest of his team was doing the same, expressions of pleased relief on their normally grim faces.

"Well, you've certainly outdone yourself this time and for that I'm truly grateful," Feral muttered close to the SWAT Kats ear.

"You're welcome," Razor smirked just a little, pleased to have surprised and won a compliment from Feral under these trying circumstances.

T-Bone was pleased by Feral's comment too as well as being greatly relieved. He hadn't wanted to think about how he was going to help protect their noncoms from attack but now he felt a little safer and more confident about them making through no-kats land in one piece...he hoped.

He activated the jets to raise the hoverkat and began directing it back through the forest to better hide them until they were closer to the mountains. Above them, the jet they'd left was already speeding off to join the rest waiting some distance back.

The group on the ground encountered no one and heard nothing except the occasional creature sound. Idly Razor wondered if the wildlife from all the areas stolen were already mingling or fighting outside their native home ground...a lot of them most likely would be left behind on this barren plain. The only thing he cared about was not encountering any that might be large enough to cause them problems.

After traveling about twenty minutes they cleared the forest and were about to enter the open, flat ground between them and the distant mountains. T-Bone halted the craft and called to Feral.

"Now's the time for your jets to do their thing, Commander."

"Right..." Feral agreed. Pulling out his radio, he contacted the flight leader. "Start your run!" He received a brisk acknowledgment then watched the sky.

The group waited tensely for some fifteen minutes when finally they heard the jets making their attempt at reaching the mountain range some distance north of their position. They could hear them easily due to the flatness of the plain and stillness of the air.

"Okay, that's our cue to make our move." Razor brought up his display of the terrain and watched tensely as T-Bone raced their hovercraft at its max speed toward the mountains in front of them.

Everyone else hung on, glad not to have to endure the wind of their passing. Feral guessed they were going approximately 100 miles an hour. He wondered idly how the devil Razor was able to coax this thing to go that fast. It certainly hadn't been designed for high speed in the first place.

"I think the plans working." T-Bone announced tightly as the mountain side seemed to loom closer after more than twenty minutes of high speed traveling.

Feral hoped he wasn't being too optimistic. He glanced to their right and saw his jets still attempting to close the gap but he could plainly see the mountains moving away, which was down right odd to witness. One couldn't actually see them moving but you couldn't miss the fact they were further back then they had been by the displacement of the ridge of peaks that formed the range which definitely looked more ragged and out of alignment now than when they'd started their run...or at least that's what it seemed like to his eyes...who knew if what they were seeing was even real.

"I have a feeling it's an optical illusion we're seeing," Razor said aloud, voicing Feral's unspoken suspicion.

"No mountain can move, so illusssssion isssss the besssst posssible anssswer for how they could appear to be moving out of the way of your jetsssss," Viper commented, thoughtfully.

He'd been staring at that area but he could not determine how these creatures were doing this trick. It made him uneasy to think they were capable of doing something this large...whether it was an illusion or not. It didn't bode well for their success but he kept that to himself.

Razor flicked his eyes at Viper a moment when he'd spoken before returning his attention to his instruments. It felt weird to have Viper in agreement with him.

"We've done it!" T-Bone called out as the craft actually managed to reach a small plateau on the mountainside large enough to hide the hovercraft but there also was no way to take the craft up and over nor any kind of cave that might have gone through. They would have to climb. The difficulty of the mission just got tougher.

"Yeah, but we'll have to leave the hoverkat and climb," Feral said, sourly, having already noted what Razor had about the terrain.

Grumbles came from the non-coms as T-Bone parked the craft as close to the mountainside as he could then shut it down. It settled slowly to the ground and went silent. Razor released the bubble and everyone began offloading.

"Wait! I see something up there on that ridge above us!" One of the special ops officers called out suddenly.

Everyone stared where the tom was pointing. Sure enough, an odd collection of creatures were some thirty feet up the mountain climbing slowly upward.

"Well, what do you know? It looks like your hunch that others might try this was spot on, buddy," T-Bone commented. "So do we join them?"

"We sssshould go it alone." Viper wasn't interested in joining forces with yet more people. It was bad enough having to do so with his enemies.

"I disagree. Pooling our resources could ensure we all manage to get home. Fighting with those above us or ignoring them, are both mistakes that could keep us here permanently," Razor insisted.

"I have to agree. If they get there before us, since they do have a head start, they could either make a big mess that will keep us here permanently or find a way to get only themselves home and not us. None of those options appeal to me," Feral chimed in,

"So it looks like we need to scramble and catch up," T-Bone grunted, pulling his pack on over his shoulders and climbing out of the hovercraft.

No one else disagreed as they all collected their gear quickly and gathered close to their leaders. Razor secured the hovercraft then he and T-Bone began to climb.

It wasn't as bad a climb as they feared as there were plenty of crevices for hand and foot holds that helped them climb with ease, even the civilians that weren't in as great a shape. The black ops officers stayed with each civilian to ensure none was left behind or fell.

Viper and Hard Drive had no real problem keeping up with Feral and the SWAT Kats, staying just behind them.

The group from Megakat City made good time and were closing in on the other group when Feral's radio sang out. He paused a moment to answer it while the others did the same, waiting to see what might be wrong.

"Feral!"

"Sir, we need to turn back, our fuel is running low even though we haven't been here that long." There was confusion and frustration in the squadron leader's voice.

Feral frowned. "How is that possible? They were fully loaded." He muttered more to himself than anyone else.

"That might be illusion as well. I hate to suggest this but it's beginning to look like these aliens are able to get into our minds and make us see what they want us too," Razor growled, his look angry and upset.

"Oh that is soo not good. If they can do that then how do we know we're climbing this mountain and not still on the ground?" T-Bone asked, angrily.

Everyone stared at him, a very bad feeling going through many of them as they realized just how bad this situation could be if it were all illusion.

"It doesssn't matter! We have no choice but to attempt thissss and hope only your pilotsss are affected and whoever they are, haven't sssseen usssss clinging to thisss mountain asss yet!" Viper hissed, not liking this situation any better than the rest but seeing no other alternative.

Feral gaped at Viper in shocked surprise. He knew the mutant was smart but he was also certifiably insane, however, apparently he could function with clarity when it was called for and this was one of those times. Shaking his head, the Commander eyed the SWAT Kats questioningly.

"He's right, surprisingly. We have no other choice but to hope we're not affected the way they are. So let's not waste any more valuable time sitting here. That other group is getting further away again." Razor was forced to agree with Viper, which made him feel odd but nothing about any of this was normal.

Shaking their heads, Feral and T-Bone had to agree this was their only chance to get home so made no comment. Speaking into his radio again, Feral told the flight leader, "Return to base..."

"Wait!" Razor interrupted him urgently.

"Hold a moment..." Feral told his pilot then eyed the SWAT Kat questioningly.

"We might need our modified jet. Have the pilot refuel it then return it where it was parked."

Feral nodded. Razor was right. They might need a quick get away and it was very possible they couldn't get back to the hoverkat. "I take you have a remote autopilot system on it?" Razor nodded. "Good." Pleased the tom had thought of that contingency, Feral spoke to his flight leader again. "Refuel the SWAT Kats jet and have it returned to where it was parked as fast as possible."

"Roger!"

With that settled, Feral tucked his radio away and the group began climbing behind Razor and Viper who were already on the move.


	8. Chapter 7

**VANISHED**

Chapter 7: Joining Up

Despite the rough going, the Megakat group managed to get close to the strangers ahead of them then were surprised when the motley group actually stopped and waited for them. The looks from above were mixed at best.

"Woah! What the heck is that thing," T-Bone whispered as he got a good look at the largest members among the climbers.

"Lookssss like ssssome kind of bear," Viper hissed softly.

As the rest of their group closed in behind them, Razor and Viper waited until all were standing on the small ledge just below the climbers above them. Everyone traded wary looks before Razor decided to break the ice.

"Can anyone understand us?" He asked, guessing there must be some form of communication for this really disparate group to have been able to join together and hike up here.

"Surprisingly, we've somehow been granted the ability to understand one another. A gift so to speak from our captors," a cultured voice that sounded very strange to Razor's ears spoke. The owner of the voice was a furless biped with brown hair on its head, who wore clothing similar to their own.

"Well that's a relief," Razor responded. "This isn't the place for introductions and we can't stand around here long before we're spotted. So I'll be quick. We are from the last city just dropped here and who flew in flying machines over your cities to try and find our captors. We're trying to get to the other side of the mountain hoping we find the culprits, beg them to return us and failing that, make them do it. If there are no creatures running the show here and it's robots or automated machines, we intend to find a way to get us all back. Does this sound like your plans as well?"

The strangers expressions ranged from surprise, wariness, relieved, and a few had no expression at all. Among them, there seemed to be those who were on the same level of development as the Kats in their attire, supplies, and mannerisms while others were obviously from more primitive periods. The one that had spoken earlier, answered.

"Excellent! I come from a world that is just as modern as you seemed to be but unfortunately, no planes came with us so here we are. Your plans match ours exactly. I'm guessing you are amendable to pooling our skills and knowledge to effect our escape?"

"Definitely!" Razor said, sighing in relief. He could feel his group relax a little knowing they'd gotten their first break. "I suggest we hurry to the top now, then find some sheltered area where we can talk and find out what skills we have in our groups and define tasks."

"Agreed! Are you the leader of your group?"

"No, only of the scientists in our complement, Commander Feral..." Razor turned to indicate the dark tom who had pushed close to stand by him, "...is our military leader."

"Colonel Dumswell..." the stranger indicated the person to his right that looked to be from the same species, with iron grey hair and a harsh demeanor, who gave Feral a sharp nod of his head as his only acknowledgment, "...is the nominal leader."

"Enough jawing now...we need to move!" Colonel Dumswell spoke for the first time, his voice deep, gruff and impatient.

"Agreed," Feral barked, his own baritone voice carrying easily to the group above. He'd had no problem allowing Razor to make first contact and was pleased to see someone else who seemed to be accustomed to leading troops as he was. This would make things a little easier, he hoped.

Without further words, the Colonel turned and began to climb and, after only a moments hesitation, the rest of his troop did the same. With Feral and Razor in the lead of their own group, the Kats quickly caught up and stayed on the others heels.

The trek up the mountain took them several hours as they were forced to pause and rest for the less fit members of their groups. None of the breaks were more than fifteen minutes before they were soon on their way again.

Though this mission had started early in the morning, it was near dusk when the two groups finally reached the crest of the mountain. They didn't pause to look around as their shapes stood out in stark relief against the light of the dying sun making them far too visible to any who might be looking, so they continued down the steep side, hoping to reach the ground before darkness fell but by the time they reached halfway, it became obvious they wouldn't make it.

It was Viper who spotted the nearly hidden cave and signaled that they should rest here. Feral and Colonel Dumswell checked it out and agreed it was a good stopping point and shelter. Soon everyone was inside then looking out over the landscape for the first time. What they saw left them all gaping...no one made a sound.

For as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but desolation and death. It looked like a war had been fought and no one had won. There were signs that a civilization of some kind had existed as there were vehicles and vague shapes of buildings, spots of farming and landscaping that didn't seem natural to the habitat but no sign of life, not even primitive ones.

Frowning, Razor looked down at his feet and stared for several minutes and saw no bugs anywhere then looked up into the sky and saw nothing flying either...this world appeared truly dead. He shivered inside. Staring out over the plain once more, he couldn't determine if the war was recent or a very long time ago.

"How much you want to bet there's no one running the show any longer?" T-Bone was the first to speak, his voice hushed and awed by what he saw before him.

"I'd think your guess would be spot on," the cultured stranger muttered. "It might be a strictly automated system...running on the last orders given by a dead race. Such things were the stuff of science fiction stories back home."

"Yeah, us too," Razor managed to mutter back.

"Then it may be our mission will have a better chance of success," Feral rumbled thoughtfully, not showing how disturbed the scene made him feel.

"Robots or automated systems still may have very formidable security systems in place," a voice spoke among them, a scientist probably.

"I might have an advantage there," came the familiar voice of Hard Drive.

Using that comment to turn everyone's attention away from the depressing scene of a dead world, Razor said, "I think now is the time for us to make plans and determine what skill pool we have now."

"Excellent idea, old chap," the cultured person said, turning away as well. Everyone followed the two's example and pulled back away from the ledge then formed a circle facing inward so everyone could be seen and heard.

"My name is Dr. Linstone, archeologist and a bit of a computer geek. With me is Colonel Dumswell, a retired army commander, Mr. Jameson...an engineer, Mr. Hornsby...a computer programmer and the last four individuals volunteered to be our guards. Two are former military, one is a policeman, and the last is a professional fighter. We hail from a planet called Earth and are called humans."

"We are the Dihannon. We have no name for our world nor did we know of such things. We only want to go home and have agreed to help to do that," a huge bear-like creature said, its voice like a base drum. There were six of them, each with a bow and arrow type device in their six fingered hands and some kind of curved knife.

"Yik-Yik, we are called...know nothing of such creatures as you...want to go home...we help defend those that know about god made things so we can go home," a strange creature that looked like a mix of a turtle and tank said, sounding like gravel in a grinder. There were four of them and they carried some kind of pronged spear. Their heads were covered by, what looked like, a helmet of bone. Razor wouldn't be surprised if it was.

"We are known as the Lansoo. We are a peaceful race and live close to nature, however, we are a curious people so have developed science skills that include biology, computers, and robotics. We have no interest in leaving our planet but have had contact with other alien lifeforms. Though we are not fighters, we three volunteered to find a way to get our people home." The speaker was a tall, thin reedy creature with huge eyes and long nimble fingers. It looked so fragile that Razor was afraid they would fall apart or be swept off the mountain but he'd watched them manage the climb with no apparent difficulties. Fragile appearing didn't mean they truly were.

Since Razor had begun as the speaker for his group, he continued when it came their turn. "We are called Kats and hail from a world named Aristal. We know about space flight and have met our share of aliens as well. We have progressed far enough to be comfortable with the same things the Lansoo are." Razor nodded to the aliens he'd mentioned.

"My name is Razor, I am a fighter, marksman, computer expert, and engineer; Commander Feral is head of our military...a fighter, marksman, and pilot; this is my partner, T-Bone...a fighter and pilot; these are three scientists..." he paused to gesture to the two from Pumadyne and Dr. Greenbox. "...who volunteered for this mission. These two are criminals from our world who have a temporary truce with us for the purpose of getting home. This is Hard Drive, the one we hope can take out any security there might be in our way. Due to that coat he's wearing, he has the unique ability to turn into energy and travel through any power outlet or conduits. He also has the ability to fire electrical energy from his paws. Dr. Viper is a biologist and a fighter. The rest of the group are specially trained soldiers under Feral's command."

Colonel Dumswell nodded his head. "We have enough fighters to protect the scientists, I see. That will be important as we penetrate wherever this control center is. So, I'm willing to share command with you Commander Feral. We'll split up the other fighters among our own, mix it up so we have an equal number of different types of fighters to better our chances."

Feral eyed the man a moment then nodded. "A good idea. We keep the scientists at the core of our group at all times. It would do us no good to lose any which would half our chances of going home."

"My thought exactly." Was Dumswell's grunted assent.

"Since it is getting dark, I suggest we wait until dawn to make our move," Razor said carefully, not wanting to take command from the two leaders. Feral was about to agree when one of their allies spoke.

"We see in darkness," a Yik-Yik grunted.

"Won't help since not all of us can see that well in darkness and could risk injury trying to climb down." Feral shook his head, nixing the idea.

There was a moment of silence then Dr. Linstone voiced another concern shared by all of them. "The only problem left then is trying to find a control center in all this destruction. By the looks of it, I doubt there is any viable water nor food anywhere so time has now become a major factor to getting our people out of here before we all starve to death like those in some of the towns we passed through on our way here," he said grimly.

The Kats gaped at him with a shudder of shock and dismay. Since they had flown to the mountains, they hadn't been aware that some of those towns below them were just dead husks. Feral realized that could only mean they were right, no one lived here and that some machine was responsible for taking people from their worlds.

"I think we just got confirmation that its machines following an old command then," Razor voiced Feral's unspoken thought.

"Crud!" T-Bone hissed, angry that a dead society had left such a thing still running. "Well the good news then is we won't have to worry about someone getting in our way except for automated systems. So how do we go about finding this needle in a huge haystack mess?"

"I'm hoping there is some residual energy bleeding out from whatever machine is doing this and using my detection system to find it. I would think something that had the power to move whole cities, has to be pretty large..." Razor began and was interrupted.

"Huge buildings or machines are unnecessary. We use units that are no bigger than one of your backpacks to power a single building so something on the scale of a city might take one the size of a vehicle to do the same job," A Lansoo said, a bit smugly.

Razor's mouth and those of his fellow scientists dropped open at the thought of miniaturization taken to that degree...it just boggled their minds.

"That is incredible but not surprising. My research was geared toward developing more compact and smaller power sources before it was derailed. Not surprising other worlds might have already succeeded," Dr. Greenbox commented softly.

Glumly, Razor had to rapidly revise his thinking. He had been using his own frame of reference because that was all he had but now there was all this alien intelligence around him to help him get a different perspective on solving their problem. What concerned him, though, was their captors may have taken the Lansoo's inventiveness even further so that any leakage of power might be so infinitesimal, his own equipment would never detect it.

As if reading his mind, the Lansoo that had spoken, said, "I believe your idea does have merit though, Rasor (stumbling on the z in Razor's name). We have equipment that should detect the smallest output of power if there is any to be found. We will try to see if we can find any as we all rest here so that we may know what direction to take in the morning."

Many heads nodded in agreement to that suggestion but it was Colonel Dumswell who made the verbal decision for all. "Go for it. Everyone else...eat...rest."

Nodding, the Lansoo went toward the entrance of the cave once more and began pulling odd bits of equipment from their packs. Fascinated and wanting to learn new tech, Razor moved to their side and watched...occasionally asking questions that the Lansoo willingly answered as they worked.

The rest found spots to sit or squat or whatever their form of relaxed position was and pulled out food supplies to consume and rest. Conversation was sparing, limited to the scientists of the modern species', and between the Kat military and the human soldiers.

Hours passed and many fell asleep, resting for the trek tomorrow. T-Bone eyed his partner a little while longer before curling up near the others of his kind for warmth and surrendering to sleep.

Feral talked with Dumswell for some hours before the two split up and got some sleep. Feral felt a bit more confident about the mission after his conversation with the human. The man might be retired but he was a good strategist and had a similar mind set as himself so they shouldn't clash that much when things got hot.


	9. Chapter 8

**VANISHED**

Chapter 8: Troubles all Around

For the third straight day since a goodly section of his city went missing, Mayor Manx was once more at his desk slogging through reports after a restless night of little sleep. He felt overwhelmed. Despite the excellent help of Callie's assistant, he still had to actually read and make a decision on everything the young she-kat brought him as she didn't have the authority nor experience to handle it.

He rubbed his aching head and drank his fourth cup of tea. Now he knew just how hard Callie worked to keep the city running. He was a little ashamed to realize just how often he left her to handle it all on her own. If he wasn't careful, she could easily take this job from him as she already did most of it. Now that was a sobering thought.

Shaking his head, he went back to the work in front of him. The report he was reviewing that moment was from Major Clawmore. He frowned as he read and got progressively more disturbed as he went down the page.

It seemed the mob presence in the city was stepping up their presence. They, like some of the city, seemed to think none of the omegas were around. Though Manx would like to think so too, Major Clawmore made it clear that only forty-eight hours had passed and since it took the omegas months to show up sometimes, it didn't mean some of them weren't still here with them.

They also didn't know if the SWAT Kats were around yet or not. Clawmore had to function as if they weren't and had beefed up security as best he could. In this most recent report, he told the Mayor that criminal activity had increased to an alarming rate. He and his troops as well as the additionally hired security forces had been doing their best to nip the problem before it could escalate but their efforts were less than successful as the mob seemed to be determined to push their obvious advantage to the fullest as no one knew if the missing part of the city would ever return.

Manx dropped the report to his desk and stood up. He went to his study window and stared out at the gardens. It soothed him a little but when he turned his gaze toward the city, it made him sick to see such a flat skyline. From his home in the country, he could still make out the grand clock tower and in the distance, the Megakat Tower and Enforcer Headquarters twin towers ... now there was nothing but empty sky.

Shuddering he returned to his desk. All that could be done was being done. He couldn't worry about it as he had enough problems just keeping the city intact for now. It was up to Clawmore to keep the peace as best he could. He just hoped fervently that Dark Kat wasn't just biding his time and planning on taking what was left of his poor city. That thought left him chilled and unhappy but once more he shoved it aside and got back to work.

'Callie would be shocked and proud of me right now but I'd trade all I have for her to be back,' he thought wanly.

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

Mornings light peeked slowly into the cave as the bright yellow sun rose on another day. It's light fell on an already awake group preparing to leave on their search. It had taken nearly all night, but the Lansoo had managed to pick up the most minuscule of signals. They insured it wasn't coming from the cities in the valley they'd left. Their own communities had shone brightly on their device which helped them determine a starting point for their search.

Standing on the ledge, ready to depart, the group waited as the leaders decided the best route to take.

"Our readings indicate the only concentration of any energy signature is due east some twenty miles," one of the Lansoo told Feral and Dumswell.

The two looked off in the indicated direction. It would be a hard and tiring march through a lot of broken landscape. Feral sighed and glanced back at his group. The scientists were the least fit of all of them but they'd held up, surprisingly, so far.

"We need to cover as much ground with few breaks as we can. Will you four be able to handle it?" He directed his comments at the two Pumadyne scientists, Dr. Greenbox, and Hard Drive.

"I can go as long as you can, Commander," Hard Drive derisively, snorted.

"I'll be alright, sir. I work out and run daily," one of the scientists assured him.

"I'd hate to be the one that held us up, Commander, but I'm not much of an athlete. I'll do what I can," the other responded, rather shamefaced but with determination in his eyes.

"I'm fit, Commander and worked out in prison as well," Greenbox said quietly.

"Good. How about you three," he asked the Lansoo.

"We are capable of traveling long distances without difficulties," one of them assured Feral.

Feral nodded then looked at the humans. He grimaced mentally. They were the weakest of their group he'd noted on their way here. They required the most breaks and their shorter legs made it harder for them to keep up with the other aliens of their group.

Dr. Linstone saw his look. "I'm sorry we're not built for long distances and have trouble keeping up with your longer legs but we are determined to not hold you up. Right?" He asked his fellow humans...they nodded solemnly. Colonel Dumswell merely grunted, he'd had no trouble keeping pace with the aliens.

"Very well. Then let's be off. We have a very long distance to go," Feral said briskly, leading the way off the mountain.

As they had planned, he and Dumswell had divided up the warriors and instructed them on who they were responsible for and who to take orders from. Razor and T-Bone voluntarily split up so there was a skilled, modern warrior with each group. The Lansoo became part of Dumswell's group while Feral took care of his own group from Megakat City. Viper chose to go with Dumswell while Hard Drive stayed with Feral.

The division hardly mattered at first as the group moved as one down the mountain but when they began their trek across the devastated landscape, the warriors took the outside perimeter of the group while the non-combatants stayed within.

Feral and Dumswell had prevailed upon the Yik-Yik to be the rear guard as their natural armor made a good wall of defense. They had agreed without argument. The group made an odd sight trudging along, plumes of dust marking their passage.

Moving across the open landscape was nerve-wracking as they didn't know if they were being observed.

"I doubt it," Razor had responded to the voiced concern by one of the non-combatants. "There's no life here and we've already seen that whatever is still running on this planet is totally focused on the valley we came from."

Others agreed with him so the scientists and Lansoo relaxed a bit and concentrated on just getting to their destination.

Razor's belief proved correct as they encountered absolutely nothing but the chilling signs of a race that destroyed itself. Someone had thought perhaps alien invaders had done this but one of the Lansoo shook their head.

"There is no sign of differing weaponry around nor damaged or destroyed alien vehicles. All we've seen so far are the devices of one race raging against another. Sad to think they chose oblivion to peace," it said sadly.

The Kats could only agree with that sentiment. Though their world was under constant strife from the omegas, they would never allow this to happen. No war on their world had ever reached this degree of destruction and hopefully it never would. It was very sobering and depressing to their spirits to see such a thing in real life rather than in fiction.

It took more than half the day to finally reach the origin of the signal. When they stared at the mountain face, they weren't very happy. Sighing they began to climb once more. The Kats found they had to help several of the humans climb up by carrying them on their backs.

The signal stopped near the top of a high peak and it was getting late...dusk was falling as climbing up here had taken a very long time both due to the need to help some of their members in climbing and because of the more treacherous quality of the mountain's steep surface.

They finally reached a very large ledge. Ahead of them was a huge entrance that was nearly invisible from the ground and was deeply shadowed in the lowering sunlight. There was a huge door that was closed and there was no sign of how to get in.

"Well, any of you genius' have an idea how we gain entrance to this place?" Dumswell asked turning to their scientists.

Razor, Jameson and the Lansoo stepped forward and studied the door intently. The rest kept a watchful eye for any traps. T-Bone and Feral had moved closer, splitting up to study the outer edges of the door carefully. Dumswell, kept his gun at the ready and had the non-coms stay close together with the other guards surrounding them.

Razor grunted and raised his glovatrix. He was very glad Pumadyne had what he needed to create a pair of these for him and T-Bone. He pressed a button and a bright blue light shone on a spot of the door. The laser seemed to be doing nothing but finally there was a soft chuff sound and the door popped open with a hiss of expelled foul air.

The ones standing near quickly turned their heads and backed away, allowing the long dead air to rush out into the growing night. When all was silent again, Razor and T-Bone moved slowly forward and peered in. The Lansoo had immediately moved to stay with the guarded group. Feral moved up behind the two but didn't press forward. The pair were good at recon and he had a job of his own...protecting the non-coms ... none of this just charging forward as was his usual behavior ... caution would get him home not reckless bravery.

Nerves taut, Razor and T-Bone stepped through the massive door. Their eyes searched the whole area. Despite the apparent age of everything they'd seen, the interior of this place was fairly pristine with invisible lighting that helped them see the long corridor that lead to another heavy door.

Their first steps on the smooth surfaced floor of some kind of black material was silent and provoked no reaction from anything... so far. The walls were a creme color and made of a reflective surface that sent their moving shapes scurrying weirdly ahead of them.

Teeth clenched, every nerve on edge, T-Bone began to walk down the corridor with Razor mirroring him at his side. The rest of their group remained in the door, waiting and watching.

The intense silence was eerie and hard to take. T-Bone was dying to make some kind of noise just to relieve the tension but didn't dare. Within minutes, they managed to reach the other door safely.

While T-Bone guarded, Razor studied this new door. This time, Razor couldn't see anything that resembled some kind of keypad or door nob or anything. The door was smooth with no protrusions anywhere. Gritting his teeth, he went to study the edges of the door, hoping to find hinges...again nothing. He hissed.

"What's wrong, buddy?" T-Bone asked, not turning from his guarding.

"The door is absolutely smooth, no hinges, nothing to show how it opens. I suspect its controlled from elsewhere and simply slides either up or down, or slide into the rock on the side of the wall."

"What about cutting a door then?"

"Yeah, I thought of that but if its made of a metal or material unknown to us, we may have nothing that will penetrate it but...I'll give it a try anyway." So saying Razor moved to the center and used his arc welder but after only a few moments, he could tell that wasn't working and switched to his laser. After another few minutes, he was forced to give up as even the laser made no mark on the smooth surface.

Angry and worried, he headed back to the door with T-Bone following. The group stepped back to allow the pair to step out.

"Nothing I have will penetrate that door and there's nothing to show what controls it anywhere," Razor reported, bitterly.

"Let me take a look," Hard Drive spoke, pushing through the group to stand with them.

Razor eyed him then shrugged. "Sure, why not. Let's go."

T-Bone and Razor walked with Hard Drive back to the smooth door and waited as the techno thief searched the surface with his energy. After several minutes, Hard Drive admitted defeat. "Crud, there's nothing for me to find."

"Hey, at least you tried. Let's see if our allies has something." T-Bone turned about and the three returned to the door again.

"Well, anyone else have something different from us that might work?" Razor asked the group at large.

The Lansoo shook their collective heads. "Sorry, as non warriors, we have nothing that is a weapon and our tools will not help you."

"We could attempt to blast it but that will tell whoever is monitoring this place they have company," Colonel Dumswell grunted, disgusted and concerned about their chances of getting into this place.

"There's only one other option...find another way in," Razor said grimly.

"It's getting dark, how are we going to search for another entrance?" Feral asked.

"We see in dark... we search," a Yik-Yik responded promptly.

Eyebrows raised, Feral and Dumswell eyed the turtle-like creatures a moment.

"Well hell, if you think you can, by all means go ahead but be really careful...find the entrance but don't go in. Come back and tell us. We don't' want to lose you to a security trap," Dumswell directed them.

Nodding their ponderous heads, the Yik-Yik split up, two going to the right and two going left of the entrance, searching along the rock walls of the mountain. With nothing else they could do, the rest of the group took the opportunity to rest.


	10. Chapter 9

**VANISHED**

Chapter 9: Entering the Fortress

While the Yik-Yik went to search for another way into the fortress, Jameson wanted a look at the door that stymied them so Razor escorted him there and was his guard, Dr. Linstone decided to tag along as no threat had appeared despite how long they'd been here. The rest stepped just inside the main door to have a more comfortable place to sit and not be in plain view but they were poised to dash out if any threat appeared.

Feral and Dunswell kept watch over them with the rest of the security forces remaining outside. It took the Yik-Yik some thirty minutes before they returned from their search. The ones that were checking the inner door hurried back to see what the four had discovered.

"Found entry...smooth walls leading deep...large enough to crawl but not stand..." one of them reported.

"A vent or drainage port perhaps?" Dr. Linstone mused, aloud.

"Possibly, but whatever it is, hopefully it will lead us inside," Feral said. "How far away is it and how is the footing for us to get there?" He asked the Yik-Yik that had spoken.

"Not far...footing some danger..." it admitted.

Dunswell grimaced and thought hard. Feral stared out into the dark, thinking furiously, his eyes straying to the humans thoughtfully.

"Tie together..." they spoke suddenly, at the same time. The Kat and the human blinked at each other in surprise. Feral recovered first and said, "...yes...we'll tie the weaker climbers to a stronger one and have a Yik-Yik and Dihannon at each end and in the middle to keep us on the path. It helps a little that we Kats do have some night vision." He eyed the Lansoo a moment questioningly after he said that.

"We too have some night vision and are quite surefooted," one answered, reassuring him.

"Good! Let's do this while there is even a hint of light left," Dunswell jumped in to say then quickly began pulling lengths of rope from his pack. The other security humans copied him.

Feral's black ops pulled strong climbing cords from their packs and without being told, tied themselves to a human. Said humans were nervous but didn't resist. Feral tied Dunswell to him then the Yik-Yik who was leading, next came two Dihannon. After them were the Lansoo tied to Hard Drive, Dr Greenbox, and the more fit of the Kat scientists followed by T-Bone with the weakest of the Kats then a Yik-Yik, Dr. Viper, a Dihannon, then the black ops with their humans attached to them, another two Dihannon and Yik-Yik brought up the rear.

Strung out like beads on a string, the group set off cautiously. It was a dangerous, harrowing, heart-stopping trip with some occasional foot slips but eventually, after a grueling hour, one by one, they made it to the tube the Yik-Yik had found.

Feral grimaced at the sight of the tunnel...it was wide but not high so all would have to crawl through. Without a word, the Yik-Yik dropped down and went in followed by Feral who pulled out a flashlight to light the way.

Dunswell did the same and as each group went into the tunnel those that had lights, took them out and lighted the tunnel. The surface of the tube was smooth and black with no seams anywhere. It was also quite long as despite shining his light ahead, Feral couldn't see the end at all. The air was dusty and choked most of them as they moved along forcing those that needed to, in covering their mouths and noses with their clothing.

The Dihanna were so big, they took up a goodly portion of the tunnel space, blotting out the sight of the others before and after them but they moved easily showing no sign the odd form of travel was uncomfortable to them. The same couldn't be said of the humans or Lansoo. The Lansoo's knees were not as padded as the other species' so they were forced to crab walk which didn't look like it was comfortable for them by the tense expressions on their faces.

As they traveled, the group's breathing and grunts of movement (which was much harder on the humans than the aliens) bounced eerily off the metal-like walls as they traversed it.

After only an hour of travel, the humans including Dunswell were forced to plead for a halt. They were never designed to crawl on their knees this long and it hurt and stiffened them. The aliens didn't complain too much as they too needed a breather and a drink of water from their precious supplies anyway.

After only a fifteen minute break and untying themselves from each other, something they hadn't bothered to do as yet, the ones able to do so took a human on their backs and continued on at a much brisker pace. It helped the humans were smaller than every one else. The Lansoo also ended up riding as well.

More than two hours later and still no sign of the end of their journey, some of the travelers were becoming seriously claustrophobic and it was taking all their efforts to not turn about and flee, running over the ones behind them to escape. But even knowing this was their only chance of surviving, a couple of them were nearing their breaking point.

Dr. Greenbox found he could handle the closed in sensation by keeping his eyes firmly on the rear of the ones before him but the human riding his back was beginning to quiver and whimper louder and louder. He shook his shoulders without stopping his forward motion to distract the human.

"Shhh...it's alright...I don't like this either but keep your mind and eyes on the body ahead of you or catalog all the things that make me different from you...anything to keep you from panicking!" He hissed to his passenger.

"I-I-I'll try...thank you," his terrified passenger stuttered, his fingers white from gripping Greenboxe's clothing in a near death grip.

Greenbox sighed and wished fervently they were out of here now, his knees were getting very tired as was his back from the weight of the human.

Not far behind him, Razor was encountering a similar problem with the less physically fit Kat scientist crawling at his side. He was panting, his eyes were wide and he kept looking around frantically.

"Hey, chill...keep your eyes ahead...you'll be alright," the slim SWAT Kat hissed, taking a quick swipe at the Kat to shake him up.

The Kat gulped and eyed the SWAT Kat wildly but did manage to nod his head and keep his eyes glued to the strange backside of a Lansoo ahead of him riding the back of a black ops Kat. He managed to become distracted by the odd way the creature moved and that helped keep his mind off his terror of closed spaces.

It was with a sincere sigh of relief that the end of the tunnel appeared at last. Without much warning, the Yik-Yik halted causing Feral and Dunswell to nearly run into it. The sudden stop caused those behind the Dihannon to hit the hulking creature and it felt much like hitting a brick wall. The air was immediately peppered with yowls, groans, hoots, and curses as they ran into the one before them. It didn't make them any happier that they couldn't see why they had stopped because of the two Dihannon blocking any view of the leaders. They would just have to wait.

Recovering quickly, Feral and Dunswell squeezed by the Yik-Yik to study the lid sealing the tunnel. There was a simple wheel turn handle...a surprising thing to see on such a modern world. It made Feral realize that just because a species was ahead of another, certain principles of mechanics were apparently universal...fortunately for them.

Dunswell didn't hesitate to attempt to open the seal but found his muscles weren't up to the task of moving something that never been opened for a very long time and was probably frozen tight. Feral watched him then when the human frowned and gave up, he moved until he could stand directly in front of the wheel and rising up on his knees, grasped the wheel with both paws, twisting it with all he had.

It didn't seem to budge at all then suddenly everyone heard a small squealing sound. Encouraged, Feral and Dunswell tried to move the wheel more but it froze again and couldn't be budged any further.

The Dihanna behind the two leaders watched intently then one of them moved closer, gesturing for Feral and Dunswell to move as far as they could to the side then used one paw to pull down on the wheel. With a torturous squealing sound that made more than half the aliens wince in pain, the wheel finally yielded and spun until the seal swung silently open.

More dead air greeted them but it wasn't as bad as the other entry point. Eager to get out of the cramped and uncomfortable tunnel, Feral and Dunswell dropped to the floor which was only three feet below them.

Dunswell grunted and rolled so as not to break his legs in the drop while Feral naturally, had no difficulty leaping down and landing easily on his feet. Staring around, they stood still and waited for some kind of response but nothing happened and the cavernous space hummed with some kind of machinery running but no sign of any people about.

Feeling the risk was minimal, they signaled for the rest to follow. The Yik-Yik curled in a ball then dropped to the floor, rolling a ways off before uncurling to stop its movement. Feral and Dunswell eyed the creature in surprise and shook their heads at the oddness of its abilities. The Dihannon jumped down next and if the floor hadn't been super strong, Feral was certain he would have felt that ponderous form hit the floor. They landed with the same ease Feral had.

The humans and Lansoo came next. The Lansoo had no difficulties nor fear of dropping to the floor but that wasn't the case for the humans who stared down in dismay. The warriors of the group didn't hesitate to jump and roll but the others simply wouldn't do it.

Sighing the black ops Kats jumped down then coaxed the humans to jump into their arms, promising they could catch them easily. It took a moment before one was willing but finally he did and was caught as promised. The rest took the plunge and were finally all safely on the ground. The rest of the Kats and Dr. Viper leaped down along with the other Yik-Yik and Dihannon until all were out of the tunnel and looking around.

The huge space was clean except for a fine layer of dust on the floor. Wasting no more time, Feral turned to the Lansoo.

"Are we on target?"

One of the Lansoo checked their instruments. He took readings and finally turned and pointed. "That is the direction where the energy is the strongest."

"Good...everyone move out and stay close," Feral growled, taking the lead with Dunswell having to catch up so they could walk together.

The place was silent except for the continuous humming and the noises they made in passing. They saw no one. Walking for more than two hours before locating a chamber that resembled an elevator, none felt brave enough to attempt something like that with no way of knowing if it would fail at any point so they continued on until they finally found a broad staircase. They blinked at the size and width of the stairs.

"Wow! They had to be huge!" Jameson blurted.

"Yes, this does indicate creatures of immense size. I hope their control panels and such aren't going to be too big for us to use," Dr. Linstone said, concerned.

"Won't know until we find the control center of this place." Feral grunted, a bit dismayed by the width of the stairs and how far up they went. They were at least four foot wide and could take six of them across but they were also some three feet high. This was going to be a problem for the humans and the Yik-Yik. Add to that, they couldn't see the top landing at all...it felt sort of like the tunnel trip they'd taken.

"Well it certainly explains why everything is soo big," T-Bone huffed. "This could take us a long time to reach where we have to go."

Razor stared up the case with as much dismay as Feral. This was going to take them hours to traverse...unless... "this will take far too long for those that can't climb that easily. I suggest my partner and I see if we can use our grappling lines to get up faster then winch everyone else up or this will take use several days to get to our destination."

Feral paused and thought about the offer. Staring up the stairs then turning to the humans in the group, he had to admit, Razor's idea was a good one...that is, if they were able to make their grappling lines catch something above.

"Go ahead. You're right. It would take too long the normal way and I'm afraid the humans couldn't do it at all nor the Yik-Yik. The aliens under discussion were forced to nod in agreement. The Yik-Yik didn't look happy about it though.

"Okay, let's give this a try T-Bone." He and his partner stood at the center of the staircase and fired their grappling lines upward. It was a long line but it was disconcerting to see them disappear above with no sign they'd caught on anything.

Frowning, the two tugged on their lines, hard. To everyone's relief, the lines held and were very taut.

"First step done...off we go!" Razor said as he signaled his line to retract and he swept upward quickly until he was out of sight with T-Bone following right after him.


	11. Chapter 10

**VANISHED**

Chapter 10: Bad Day for All

While the team entered the fortress, back in their home city, Callie had her paws full. It was already two days since Feral had left and things were getting tight with food and water. She'd already gone on their makeshift TV news station to try and soothe everyone.

At each of the evacuation centers a large projection screen had been set up for this purpose, the rest of the time it played soothing music. The psych people she'd gotten advice from about keeping the people calm, told her it might help ease tensions...so far it seemed to be working. Right now though, all the Katizens listened intently as their Deputy Mayor begged them to hold on.

"_Please, I know things are getting a little lean in the water and food department. Believe me, we've scrounged for everything we can find. You must be as frugal as you can to make what is left go as long as necessary._

_It won't be much longer, I promise. Two days ago, Commander Feral, the SWAT Kats, a team of black ops and volunteer scientists took off for the mountains where it is hoped they will find the ones who did this to us and force them to send us home again. We must all hold on until they succeed. Believe in them and don't give up hope. Keep the peace and be civil with one another._

_What I will not tolerate is bullies, thieves, or others who see fit to turn this emergency into their own personal bid for power. They will quickly find themselves in a very inhospitable place away from others until our return. You may have already witnessed the arrest of some of these trouble makers which proves how serious I am about keeping the peace. I want all of us to return home alive and safe...your cooperation will ensure that happens. _

_I will keep you informed about what's happening. Thank you."_

"Great speech, Ms. Briggs. Hopefully, it will keep the people calm a little while longer," Major Preston sighed.

"Thank you. I hope so as I have nothing else to offer them." She gave him a wane smile. Her body was tired and dirty, sweat ran into her eyes constantly and she dreamed of a hot shower. Her fur felt icky and no amount of brushing would make it behave. Her eyes were red and puffy but despite her less than pristine appearance, she presented only a steely strength for all to draw from. It didn't matter that inside she was depressed and afraid. All her hopes were on the team in the mountains but as time passed those hopes were beginning to fade.

"Please don't despair, ma'am," the young major said, earnestly, voice soft so only she could hear him. He looked just as scruffy as she did and just as tired.

She frowned at him. "I thought I hid that pretty well."

He smiled sadly. "You have...to nearly everyone else but I've been at our side since this began and I can tell how much distress you're beginning to feel. Honestly, I'm starting to feel the same way. All that keeps me going is the thought of the Commander and the others doing what they can to rescue us. I try not to think about what will happen if they don't."

"You mean like the riot at the prison showing us a pretty good clue as to what we can expect on a bigger scale if we don't get out of here?" She asked, a bit sarcastically.

He winced at the reminder of the hell the prison guards were dealing with right this moment. A handful of prisoners had somehow managed to pry open their cells and were, at last word, causing serious trouble and mayhem there. He had no more katpower to send their way so they were on their own. It made him feel terrible to leave them stranded like that.

A touch on his arm made him look at her. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that and made you even more upset...that was mean of me and I can only blame exhaustion for my loss of manners," Callie said, apologetically.

"Think nothing of it, Ms. Briggs. I understand." Straightening, he said, "well, I need to make the rounds of our evac centers. I'll be able to tell you what the situation is truly like when I get back later."

"Unlike the inflated ones I've been getting, eh? Just be careful. I need you and can't afford to lose you now."

"I'll take due care, Ms. Briggs. I promise." With that, he left the control room quickly and made the lengthy trip down the stairs to the small convoy that was waiting for him.

The major had made it a point to at least see how things truly were at each of the evacuation sites every twelve hours. They'd already learned the ones responsible for each evac center seemed to think partial information of their problems was good enough, not realizing it could snowball into something very serious given time. So he'd gone out twice now and found problems that had to be fixed immediately or idiots that needed locking up so that things could continue to run as smoothly as the situation allowed.

Alone again, Callie sighed, thanked Sgt Fallon for the cup of coffee he'd managed to get for her from somewhere, and returned to listening to the reports coming in from their patrols around the city. Things were getting very tense the longer they remained here. She gave it only another 24 to 48 hours before things went critical.

"Please hurry, guys," she murmured softly as she stared blindly out at the alien landscape.

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

Mayor Manx listened to Major Clawmore with growing horror. When the tom finished speaking, Manx could only shake his head as if he could deny what he'd heard.

"S-s-so, its certain Dark Kat is around and planning something terrible for my poor city soon?" He finally asked.

Clawmore nodded his head, his expression grave. "Yes sir. There's no mistake. Some snitches we caught recently, reported seeing Dark Kat's weird creeplings and his ninjas running from some recent robberies of electronic warehouses. All point to that omega planning something big and very soon indeed."

"What are we going to do?"

"All we can do. I've briefed all our forces including the temporary ones we hired and armed them. I have spotters around the area of the Lost Zone to watch for signs of his coming. I'm keeping Professor Hackle's robot out of sight until we truly need it. That huge robot is all that will help us keep Dark Kat from taking us over completely."

Manx could only shake his head. Things had gone from bad to worse in less than 48 hours. "...and still no sign of the SWAT Kats?" He asked a little desperately.

Clawmore shook his head. "I'm certain, sir, they aren't here. From their reputation, I know they wouldn't have just sat around ignoring all the crimes and other things going down so I have to conclude they are with Commander Feral. But truthfully, I think that's to our benefit."

"How the heck could that benefit us?" Manx nearly shouted.

"Because it means Commander Feral has them to try and get the city back. With them there, the chances of success has gone up."

"Oh...yes...well you may be right about that...at least I hope you are," Manx sighed, rubbing his head for once forgetting his toupee and dislodging it. So distracted and worried, he was, he didn't bat an eye when the Major picked the rug up from the floor and handed it back to him. He slapped it on his head, perfunctorily fixed it and returned to brooding about their problem.

"So all our hopes are on Feral, Callie and those dratted SWAT Kats to get my city back. A long shot that is but I have to believe he'll succeed as the alternative is watching my city be burned to the ground in just a few more days..." Manx moaned.

"Unfortunately, I agree with that sentiment a hundred percent, your honor."

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

Razor sailed up the long staircase and finally arrived at the top some five minutes later. He didn't recall ever taking soo long to make a traverse before...it was really unnerving. It was worse when he found he and T-Bone were suspended some seven feet up in the air.

Shaking his head, he shot another line into the wall just a couple of feet from the floor and slid down to touch the ground at last.

"Wow! How the hell are we going to help people get up here when they arrive so far in the air?" T-Bone voiced the concern Razor was already worried about.

"I'm beginning to think the owners of this place or their security won't be our real problem...size will be. I think Dr. Linstone's observation about being able to even handle the controls when we find them will be very daunting and difficult."

"Let's not even think about that yet, buddy. One problem at a time and this problem is a dozy as it is," T-Bone sighed staring up at their grappling line then looked around the area they were in. "Huh! More empty, huge corridors...no surprise there," he huffed.

"Yeah, more walking too..." Razor sighed, annoyed, staring off into the distance of the corridor, not seeing an end. Turning away, he looked up and shrugged. "It looks like I'm the one who has to hang like a spider and you be the anchor down here, buddy."

"Oh joy...well let's get started before they begin to worry."

"Right." Razor reached for his communicator, the twin of which was in Feral's paw below. "Commander, this isn't going to be easy..." he explained the problem and the only solution they had.

Feral felt like screaming but kept it tamped down. This whole mission was becoming a true trial on ones spirit. "Fine. Will send the lightweights up first. Not sure how well the truly heavy ones will do...guess we'll find out."

Razor grimaced as he realized what Feral was talking about. The Dihannon and Yik-Yik might not do so well trying to go up in this fashion but he didn't see what else they could do. Shoving that problem aside, he flicked the control on his grappling line and whizzed back up the wall to the one going downstairs. Here he double checked the harpoon in the wall to ensure it was still seated well then attached another line and sent it down to Feral.

Below, Feral began getting everyone lined up. A loud chak sounded behind him and he turned to see the harpoon hook grab the floor hard, a loose line attached to it for the rappel. Using line of their own, the black ops volunteered to help carry the humans up and aid the SWAT Kats at the other end. Feral, after asking Razor, agreed that would be a good idea and would get them all up faster.

Wrapping a line around the first human to go, the enforcer cinched his passenger to him securely before activating the automatic retraction of the line. The two shot up into the air quickly, the human making a sharp cry of surprise as they swept up the stairs dizzingly fast. When they reached the end, the enforcer could see what the SWAT Kat had meant by a problem on arrival.

Grimacing, he helped Razor switch their hookup from one line to another carefully, then they were rappeling to the floor where T-Bone caught them, keeping the two from crashing into the floor or wall.

In this fashion, each group of human and enforcer made the trip up. Next came Dr. Viper, who had very little trouble with the trip nor did Hard Drive though he had muttered, he wished he could just get up by energy instead but no one could find any kind of outlet for him to try that method. The rest of the Kats went up fairly easily, except for the more fearful of them and a Lansoo was the one to offer going up with him. He gratefully agreed and made the trip with his eyes closed.

Surprisingly, the Yik-Yik didn't have a problem either but to ensure Razor and T-Bone wouldn't get too tired, they didn't go up all at once and instead, spaced themselves among the lighter members of the group. Unhappily, it turned out the huge Dihannon were going to be a problem. It turned out they were really afraid of this method of travel and balked.

Feral was at a loss at how to get these huge bear-like creatures to do this, but Dumswell wasn't.

"You want to remain here like cowards? You've come this far but a difficult climb has you running scared? Some warriors you are," he deliberately derided them, having no idea if their emotional makeup would even react to such a threat but having nothing else he could think of to try.

One of the creatures gave him an angry stare while another made a rather menacing sound in his throat. Dumswell wisely kept out of reach of their long arms.

"Well, what are we to think when everyone has gone up, especially my people who are afraid and here you stand unwilling to try," he continued to goad them.

The rumbling dissonance got stronger and one of the Dihannon lunged forward but not for the human who thought he was going to attack him but for the line. It had watched and knew what to do and was soon soaring upward followed in quick fashion by his fellows.

Razor gulped in shock as the huge creature came soaring at him like a boulder but managed to keep his perch and aplomb as he switched the angry and fearful Dihannon for the ground half. It took several minutes for each of the huge beings to make the trip but finally, all that was left was Feral and Dumswell.

Without complaint, the Colonel willingly allowed Feral to take him along as he knew the Kat was far stronger than him and would insure he made the trip safely. The two went flying upward then down again to join the rest.

"Personally, I truly hope we don't have to return the same way," Dr. Linstone said feelingly as they gathered together in the center with the guards around them, then making off down the long corridor following the signal once more.

"You and me both," Greenbox muttered, not having liked the trip much himself. "I'm also, not too keen on yet another long trek on foot either." He stared unhappily at the seemingly endless corridor.

"I'm fit but I've never pushed myself this hard before. Everything in my body is complaining. If we ever get out of here, I'm going to sleep for a week," Jameson muttered at the Kat's side. The other humans around them grunted their agreement to that sentiment as they struggled to keep pace with the faster moving aliens.

"Be at ease, human. The signal indicates we are getting very close...less than twenty yards," the Lansoo monitoring the signal said, encouragingly.

"Oh well, that's a relief," Dr. Linstone sighed gustily.

Only an hour later, the Lansoo called a halt. "This is where the signal originates."

Everyone looked up at an enormous door with no handle or way to open it. A variety of groans and snorts of disgust was heard as they all studied the problem.

"This is getting so old," T-Bone groused. "Well, I certainly hope we can cut through this time because I have no idea how to open it."

"You got that right and hopefully there's no nasty security system waiting for us to enter, either," Razor agreed as he lifted his glovatrix and activated his torch.

With T-Bone starting at the same point, the two moved away from each other and began to cut into the door. Relief crossed many faces as they could see the welding torches cutting into the odd material with ease. It took them a good fifteen minutes to make a hole big enough for even the Dihannon to pass through. The piece they'd cut fell inward with a dull thud onto the floor inside.

Everyone froze but after several minutes, nothing happened. Cautiously, T-Bone and Razor led the way into yet another cavernous room. However, this one was filled with high tech equipment situated on high counters.

Just as Dr. Linstone feared, the equipment was indeed huge...the counters with the equipment were more than six feet up and the buttons and dials were as big as a Yik-Yik in size. How were they going to move the things?

"Wonder why there has been no alarm to our presence?" Feral voiced his main concern as he and Dumswell searched the area with their eyes and ears.

"It could be we are soo small, rather like mice, that the security system doesn't recognize us as a threat," Linstone suggested.

"Hmm..." Feral frowned. The human may be right about that...good news for them if it was true.

"You may be right, human," one of the Lansoo agreed, thoughtfully.

"No scent...no living thing here..." a Yik-Yik added, helpfully.

"Agreed...no living things but us are here," a Dihannon chimed in, he and his brethren had spread out and searched the area near them without going too far.

"That could be true, however, that doesn't mean this place wouldn't have a pest control system to keep the critters from multiplying and, unfortunately, we look pretty much like bugs in comparison to the previous owners," Razor warned while he searched the area more intently, looking for some kind of system that might be responsible for that. He didn't like the seeming lack of security...it felt wrong.

"With no life at all, maybe the machines just stopped working," T-Bone suggested, hopefully as he searched the walls and ceilings as well then gasped when something flashed from one corner. "Down!" He yelled, throwing himself flat to the floor.

Almost everyone reacted quickly except for a Lansoo and a human. Both were bisected by a glowing purple beam...killing them instantly.

Everyone scrambled to hide beneath one of the huge consoles and out of the direct line of fire of the beam which fired again searing the floor where they'd been.

"Shit! I knew it seemed too easy," Razor cursed angrily staring at the two dead bodies laying sprawled obscenely on the open section of floor.

"No point berating yourself, Razor. We knew it was possible and most of us did get away. What's important is we now know it for a fact," Colonel Dumswell grunted pragmatically.

"Yeah, tell that to the two out there," T-Bone growled, angry as well.

The two remaining Lansoo keened softly for their lost member. No one knew what to say to them so kept silent. One of the humans and a Kat whimpered a little in fear.

Razor leaned a little out of their protection, got a bead on the spot of the hidden weapon and fired one of his own specialized weapons. It was an octopus missile but it never reached its target before being vaporized. Razor didn't hesitate to quickly follow up with a scrambler missile which reached the spot, making a mini explosion bloom then spew parts to the floor.

"Gotcha!" He hissed. "But are you the only one?" He and T-Bone searched the far corners with a set of binoculars.

T-Bone spotted another in a far corner. Pointing at it, he asked a question with his face.

"You fire anything you like and I'll piggyback another scrambler on it," Razor responded. They did it quickly and got the same spectacular results.

"That it you think?" T-Bone asked, searching again.

"Let me look," Feral said, moving closer to them and with his own binocs, searched the whole ceiling as thoroughly as he could. "Seems clear," he grunted, finally, after some ten minutes.

"Yeah, but are there other forms of pest extermination out there?" Jameson grumbled, unhappy and scared.

"No way to know unless we send something out there," Razor said, turning around to look for something to throw.

"Here'ssss ssssomething you can toss out there..." Viper said, dragging out a large piece of some kind of wood he'd found stuck near the back of their hideaway.

"Good enough!" T-Bone helped Viper toss the wood out as far as they could then waited after the piece struck the floor rather loudly some distance away.

They waited for some ten minutes and were just sighing with relief when a soft noise was heard.

"What was that?" Feral hissed, laser out and searching the area of the sound.

"I don't...wait...shit...incoming..." a black ops cried, pointing at something rolling along the floor, heading for them.

Immediately, all those with weapons fired on the fast moving machine. Tar fired at its wheels slowed it down, explosives seemed to have no effect. The ops members fired lasers and bullets but nothing seemed to stop the thing completely. Razor fired more tar at its wheels, finally gumming it up but not disarming it as it began to fire deadly purple beams at them.

Everyone scrambled hoping to confuse it but it had been built with that behavior in mind and fired multiple purple beams. Two Dihannon and a Yik-Yik were taken out in the first volley, another human and a black ops Kat were next to die.

"We're going to be decimated if we don't knock that thing out," T-Bone shouted as he rolled and dodged another beam, firing an octopus missile at the eye beam. That seemed to help for all of a second before the thing turned it to ash.

Hard Drive was not normally a brave Kat nor did he care much for others, but he did want to go home so while the others had the thing occupied, he came in from behind, something it apparently didn't expect for a bug to do since running away was what they normally did.

He hurriedly ran at the thing and leaped on top. Searching quickly, he managed to find some kind of panel which he pried open then sent a blast of energy stored in his coat into it. The machine halted its firing and made an odd noise.

Worried it might blow up with him on it, Hard Drive slid off the back and ran. The rest fled quickly, taking refuge under the consoles again. They stared at the machine in apprehension before it went boom spectacularly...firing parts of itself everywhere.

"Way to go Hard Drive," T-Bone shouted in surprised relief. The techno thief blushed at the unexpected compliment.

"Well, hopefully there was only one of those things, I'm getting low on ammo," Razor said worriedly.

The group stared at the bodies of their dead comrades. "I wished it's demise hadn't cost us so dear," Dr. Linstone muttered, sadly.

A grim silence fell over them as Feral gathered them together. "I'm sorry for the loss of the others. I know we're tired and hungry so I suggest we pause long enough to rest and refuel before tackling the climb up there." He pointed grimly to the ledge above their heads. Groans followed that comment as well as muttered comments of relief that they could take a much needed break.

Staying close together, eyes alert for danger, the group slid to the floor and gratefully drew out their supplies. Many turned away from the bodies on the floor except for the rather stolid Yik-Yik and Dihannon.

As Feral watched over them with Dumswell beside him, he sighed. Of the humans, they had lost the fighter and one of the cops. Of the others, one Yik-Yik, two Dihannon, a Lansoo, and one of his own enforcers were dead. He sincerely hoped they lost no more or there wouldn't be enough of them to complete the mission.


	12. Chapter 11

**VANISHED**

Chapter 11: The Last Push

After resting more than thirty minutes, as far too many were extremely tired, they gathered up their strength and courage and waited to make the last push for freedom.

As they had done before, it was on T-Bone and Razor's shoulders to get them up to the high counter where they hoped their salvation could be found. This time the trip wasn't as difficult nor as long. Once the SWAT Kats were above, they easily rappelled each member up quickly.

Soon they were all staring at the various controls. It was now up to the scientists and engineers to try and suss out the console's secrets while the fighters took up a guarding position, spread out along the edge of the counter, a modern fighter next to a more primitive one to ensure all skill levels were evenly represented.

Feral and Dunswell were floaters, moving back and forth behind the line and keeping an ear out for any request for help by the scientists. T-Bone joined them as he didn't have anything to offer his partner at the moment. He would glance every so often to the group of eggheads as they muttered over each section of the console.

"Think they'll figure it out?" He asked idly.

"If they don't we're never going home which, of course, means were dying here," Feral said grimly, the thought making him angry and worried.

This certainly isn't where I had intended to end my life," the human grunted.

Feral snorted as did T-Bone behind him. "Neither did we...expected to die in battle against those damnable omegas we've been spending far too many years fighting."

Dumswell eyed Feral thoughtfully. "I suspect since you've been fighting that long, you've fallen into a predictable pattern and with no outside influence, you can't see the forest for the trees if you know what I mean."

Feral grimaced then sighed. "We have the same saying and I'm afraid you are only too right about that."

"Well then, perhaps being from a different world, I might provide some new insight in solving your problem, starting with developing a new way of catching these individuals as well as a way to incarcerate them more securely."

Feral blinked in surprise but it was T-Bone who answered. "Now that's a great idea. Though you're not completely right about us doing the same actions all the time...Razor is always coming up with new gadgets and these three omegas we know, find new ways of doing their thing, however, they are predictable about their desired targets and what they want which is to take over the city. Though damned if I know why as there are many others places they could try besides us."

"Our entire population isn't large, T-Bone, but the highest concentration lives in Megakat City. After all, it is the biggest, most modern city on Aristal. This is the reason they keep hammering us instead of hunting easier prey," Feral grunted, shaking his head. Speaking to the human again, he said, "I'd be interested to see if you do have a new angle, Dumswell. I'm tired of playing their game."

Dumswell nodded his head in understanding. "I'm listening...give me a low down on what you've done and what kind of criminals are these we're discussing."

"Well two of them are right here with us," Feral snorted, pointing to Viper and Hard Drive. He proceeded to tell the human all he knew, with T-Bone filling in with his own experiences in fighting them.

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

Back in the piece of Megakat City trapped on this alien world, Callie was embroiled in their first major conflict. Some of the criminal element had decided to leave the evacuation points to fend for themselves. With no honor among thieves, these elements began to squabble among themselves for the spoils they'd been able to find here and there about the city and clashing with the enforcers.

Major Preston was forced to pull all the forces he dared and went after them. It was bloody, messy with death on both sides but the major was victorious. Though injured himself he ignored medical advice and kept control over the transfer of the still living criminals to their makeshift lockup then had his enforcers return to their normal duties before finally seeking medical help for himself.

Callie went to the medical bay to get his report and to see how he was doing. She found the major laying on a bed as his wounds were being cleaned and dressed, an IV running into one arm, a stoic and tired look on his face. He was shot in his left arm but it was a through and through, scored with a knife across the chest and a stab wound in the thigh and was covered with bruises...a nice big purple one was blooming across his left cheek.

"You are finally getting the rest you need," She smirked, trying for a bit of levity.

"Oh yeah, all the comforts of home and pretty nurses to tend me," he snorted then winced as the doctor finished stitching his left thigh.

"How is he doctor," Callie asked, more serious.

"He was lucky, a little further and he wouldn't be here now. This wound was the worst, the rest are just flesh wounds and will heal quickly. However, he has to stay in bed for at least a day if he wants to be of any use." The doctor stepped back, gave the deputy mayor a nod then left the room for others that required his care.

She thanked him as he passed her then moved closer to the major as the nurses finished making him comfortable.

"I'm glad you're alright. Why don't you give me your report ... to take your mind off the pain."

He nodded and quickly related the particulars. "At least we were able to take out two of the worst leaders, the rest are cowed and causing no more problems. They can fight among themselves in those cages if they want which will happen anyway as they are getting a little crowded now."

"That's their own fault. Now maybe they'll think twice before being such idiots," Callie snorted, having no sympathy for the creeps at all. "Thank you for keeping a lid on the situation. Hope we don't have another blowup for at least a day."

"Yeah, a day is something to hope for. More than that is asking far too much of people pushed to their limits. I suggest, Ms. Briggs, you send yet another broadcast about this clean up and reiterate the hope of a quick return of Commander Feral and his team."

"Yes, I know. I planned on it. Perhaps you should have my job," she smirked.

"No thanks," he snorted, amused. "I admire your ability to handle all this as well as you have."

"Well thank you but may I say, you haven't done too shabby yourself."

He blushed a bit, realizing they were bordering on the edge of flirting. Callie seemed to realize this as well as she put some distance between them.

"Well, I need to get back. Obey the doctor and rest. This is your best opportunity to do so before all hell breaks loose."

"Yes ma'am," he said fairly meekly but in the back of his mind he was already planning to call his second to brief him on what he needed done while he was on his back recovering. His eyes watched the pretty she-kat leave and sighed. 'Out of my league, that one is.'

Sighing herself, Callie left the major to rest and returned to the chaos of her temporary office. Preston was a nice tom with many fine qualities. She could see herself enjoying his company if things had been normal, however nothing was normal right now and even if they managed to return, she would be far too busy helping the Mayor restore order to even think about stepping out to relax.

She sighed again. It was a nice thought but she doubted it would be anything more than that. Pushing the image of the attractive tom from her mind, she once more focused on keeping her piece of the city together.

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

Razor, Jameson, Dr. Linstone and the last two Lansoo studied the many dials, levers, buttons, and other hardware the consoles boasted.

Though a bit out of his depth here, his field being biology, Dr. Viper was able to follow some of the others thought processes and offer suggestions of his own. His tail proved to be of use when they decided to flip a few switches, move some dials, or levers to carefully test them out.

Hard Drive hovered close by and listened carefully, he was computers knowledeable but these were far beyond anything he could make sense of...it irked him that Razor seemed to have a better idea of what he was looking at. However, they didn't rule him out as Razor told him, they still would need his skills to destroy the machine as nothing Razor carried could do the job without harming all of them. A nervous shiver went down Hard Drive's spine at the thought of diving into the circuits of some alien machine but he had volunteered and if he did nothing, he wouldn't be going home.

Time seemed to drag and it was more than an hour later before any of the scientists were fairly certain they had been able to narrow down the particular section of the console that did what they wanted. Razor had also managed to figure out what section ran the security system and planned on disabling it as soon as they managed to send their worlds home.

There was one catch however, and no one was happy about it.

"What do you mean we have to wait?" Colonel Dumswell demanded when they all gathered to hear what their scientists had to say.

"To be certain the instruments we've guessed are the right ones, we need to see them in action and that means waiting until it snatches another town," Razor explained, equally unhappy.

"That seems so wrong to have yet another town suffer what we did when we arrived," T-Bone objected.

"Yeah, we know but we have no choice," Razor said, bluntly.

"Then I truly hope it won't be long before it does it again. Time is against us," Feral said, grimly.

"According to the Lansoo, a community is brought here about every forty-eight hours. We were so busy with our own problems we never noticed," Razor said.

"Well, then I'm glad someone was paying attention. So how long do you think we have to wait?" Dumswell asked.

"Fortunately, if our calculations are correct, only another fifteen minutes," a Lansoo spoke up.

Dumswell brightened at the news. "Great, well we better be on our toes and watching. I suggest we all put our eyes on the instruments so we don't miss anything then compare notes as soon as the action is over."

"Good idea. Since no threat has come at us in the past hour, guarding is less important than spotting our way home faster," Feral agreed. He and Dumswell carefully mixed the group, with one primitive to one modern all along the console.

Silence fell as everyone stared with intense concentration to their section of the control board, watching carefully for any activity. It was actually eighteen minutes before the entire console began humming. New lights and unknown symbols scrawled across a previously blank screen as the machine powered up.

Barely breathing all eyes watched and recorded what they were seeing. On a screen monitored by Razor and Dr. Linstone an image appeared ... odd swirls of color burst into existence for several seconds to be replaced by an image of the plain their city had landed on. Within moments yet another strange town arrived just to the right of Megakat City.

No one made a sound as they all studied the active board intensely, burning the information into their minds before it all went dark and quiet again. As soon as that happened, they gather together quickly.

"Alright, each one of you tell us what you saw ... we'll start at that end..." Razor pointed to the left, "... and work our way down the board."

Everyone did as he ordered. Gathered together, the group started at the end, the ones for that part of the board gave their briefing then the next group and so on until they reached the other end.

"Thank you. Now relax as we go over this information," Razor said with a distracted air as he and the other scientists gathered close and began to discuss their findings.

The others milled around nervously, excitement and tension swirling around them as they waited the verdict. It took the scientists more than thirty minutes to come to an agreement.

When Razor finally spoke, quite a few of the anxiously waiting others jumped. "Okay, we've succeeded in isolating the right part of the console we need but to be certain, we have to test it. Since there are a few dead towns, we'll pick one and see if we can return it to its rightful place."

"How will you know where to send them and whether they did get home again?" Feral asked.

"Unfortunately, we don't know for certain..." Dr. Linstone started to say.

"...but we've extrapolated that the coordinates for these places should be automatically stored in the memory of this computer and that, as advanced as it is, if we reverse it, the computer will send each place back where it's memory says it should go. As for knowing if it's the right place...unfortunately, all we can do is compare the place to its surroundings and hope it matches...it's the best we can hope for," Razor finished, shrugging.

"Let's do this then!" T-Bone interrupted, tired of all the talking and very much aware, their allies were too. "Do you need our help with anything?"

"Yeah, we're going to need some muscle and skilled paws to handle the controls. The scientists will spread out over the area we're going to manipulate. The rest of you will provide the muscle needed to lift us up or help turn, pull, or push the controls we'll need. Colonel Dumswell, which of the towns are dead?" Razor asked as they spread out over the console.

One of them is two towns north of that medieval-like place you parked your jet beside," he said promptly.

"Great, okay everyone get into position," Razor ordered as he took his place next to Linstone before what they determined was the main screen and controls for what they wanted.

Following Razor and Dr. Linstone's instructions, all along the line, people moved controls as instructed as they sat aboard the shoulders of their bigger companions. Fortunately, the controls were not difficult to move, somehow not stiffened by age or dust at all.

They knew they were doing something right when they heard the hum of awakening machinery start up. On the screen before Razor and Linstone and image appeared. The whole plain where the stolen communities sat flared to life.

It took some manipulating and swearing before they figured out how to make the computer pan over the plain to find the town they were interested in. Here's when the most nerve-wracking time began as they sent that community off. For seconds nothing seemed to happen then the screen displayed that town in a new location.

"Well, does it look like the right location. Let's scan the area..." Linstone muttered more to himself than anyone else. "What does everyone else think?" He asked aloud, hoping other eyes might corroborate what he was seeing.

Several voices said they saw enough similarities to believe the place was back where it belonged. Sighing in relief, they began to send back every town except for the ones that belong to everyone here.

After a half hour, they paused. "Okay, that's all but our homes," Razor said.

"Okay, so how do we send ourselves back when someone must man the controls," Colonel Dumswell stated the obvious flaw in their plans.

"Gather together, please," Razor shouted rather than answer the Colonel.

When everyone was grouped together again, Razor eyed them gravely. "We scientists discussed this when we finished figuring out the console. Apparently, whoever built this set it to take a town on a regular schedule. All we do is reverse that schedule. Now that we have manually sent all those others back, we've made it stop and wait to finish until we return to our appropriate towns then the computer will automatically begin again and send us back in the sequence it snatched us."

"That means, you'll be first to return," Dumswell said, matter-of-factly.

"Yes."

"So you better hope you're right as I don't know how we're going to get back without your help," he said grimly.

"On this we're only as certain as our experience can get us after that its just luck. Dr. Linstone and Jameson is with you so you'll be able to do this if you must," Razor assured him.

Dumswell wasn't completely happy with that answer. "That would be fine if we were able to but aren't you going to rig this to destroy itself so no one suffers this again?"

"Yes. However, I can put a few days hold on the destruction so if something does go wrong you have time to make it out yourselves. I'll show you how to stop and start the destruct device I'll leave here."

Dumswell relaxed and nodded his approval. "You are very thorough for which I am truly grateful."

Razor grinned and nodded back.

"So with that solved, the next problem is how do we get back in a reasonable time?" Feral was the next to ask a thorny question.

"Easy! The replacement jet we altered!" Razor said.

"But we haven't stopped the security of this place to allow that to get close," Feral objected.

"That's where Hard Drive comes in. I want him to disable but not destroy the security console which we've determined to be that one over there," Razor said, pointing at a set of control some ten feet from him.

All eyes turned toward the techno thief. Hard Drive felt a cold fear run through him. Okay, now it was his turn, no chickening out now.


	13. Chapter 12

**VANISHED**

Chapter 12: Return of Hope

Razor walked over to Hard Drive and put an arm around his shoulder then guided the techno thief toward the section of the console that handled the security system.

In a low voice, he murmured, "I know you're scared. I would be too but you're our only hope."

Hard Drive had been startled and annoyed when Razor had put his arm on him like that but didn't shove him away when he heard the SWAT Kat say that to him. He was shocked. No one had cared about what he felt on anything for a very long time and it felt strange to hear it now and from a most unlikely source.

Turning his head, he eyed the slim built tom in surprise.

"What? Who wouldn't be scared to dive into some alien machine with no idea if it will react to you or not? Unfortunately, I'm counting on you...we all are...for you to succeed. This thing seems to have many familiar things about it so I'm fairly certain its innards would behave in very similar ways as our own. After all, physics is fairly constant in the universe," Razor said, softly, in answer to his stunned look.

"Yeah? Well let's hope you're right as I won't get a second chance to say I told you so," Hard Drive snorted, trying to pretend toughness when his stomach was clenched tight with fear.

"Good luck!" was all Razor would say then stepped back.

Licking his lips in nervous tension, Hard Drive approached the controls as if it were a hungry tiger about to eat him. Finding an entry port, he took one last, deep breath then signaled the surge coat to do its thing through a control in his palm.

He felt the familiar scrambling of his body turning into electrons and flowing forward. In this strange disembodied form, he hurried through circuits that did indeed look very similar to their computers at home. He had only nano seconds to look around and decide what he needed to touch to scramble things.

When he determined a section that looked like a memory board was the right target, he surged forward only to encounter some kind of things. They seemed sentient and resembled fleas with teeth. Shocked, he tried to retreat. They grabbed hold of him and felt sheer agony rip through his electron body. His mind screamed as he did his best to flee their grasping mouths, but he made sure to deliberately pass through various memory boards he'd targeted so the trip and pain would be worth it then raced for the nearest exit out of there. Those things continued to tear at him as he made a lunge through the port to the outside, reforming into Kat form the moment he was free, but arriving so abruptly that he landed flat on the surface of the counter, splayed out and unable to move or speak.

"Hard Drive are you alright?" Razor's voice asked in concern, his face coming down to stare into the criminal's. He could only stare back and breathe...nothing else worked and he still hurt everywhere.

"What the heck happened to him?" T-Bone asked, standing over the thief.

Feral and Dunswell came close to stare in confusion at the shape Hard Drive was in. The others stayed back and watched in concern. All could see Hard Drive's surge coat was burned and torn in many places as were his clothes beneath it. Feral and Razor carefully peeled the coat off and checked the tom. He had burns and it looked like bites on his arms and legs. They looked rather nasty. One of the black ops brought over a med kit and began to treat him.

"Well, whatever it was that attacked him, it didn't keep him from trashing that control center," Razor said nodding toward the now smoking board.

"Well that's a relief. Now we can finally get the hell out of here. So how do you plan on getting the jet?" Feral asked briskly, standing up and allowing the black ops member to care for Hard Drive.

Razor joined him, the rest of the group clustering around to listen. "Well first I have to see if I can get a signal out, if not...T-Bone and I will have to go outside and call it to us. Next, we have to make a hole in that door to bring the jet in. With so much space we'll be able to fly it up here and pick everyone up...that's the plan anyway. On our way back out, we stop to pick up the hovercraft then drop everyone off in their own towns."

"Sounds like a good plan. Go for it," Feral said, a bit impatiently.

Razor took no offense at Feral's manner as he raised his glovatrix and typed in something on the keypad there. He studied the screen and hissed in disappointment. "No good, the signal won't get through whatever this facility is made of."

"Wonderful, more lost time," Feral grumbled, others adding their unhappy sounds of disappointment to his.

"Sorry, we'll have to hoof it back to the outside. It's the only option we have left," Razor shrugged, not happy either.

"No point in complaining about it. If that's what needs to be done then you two better get finished up here then get going," Dumswell said, firmly.

"Copy that!" Razor agreed then hustled the scientists over to the computer to set the timer so it would proceed with the return of each community beginning in four hours. Hopefully that would be long enough for the SWAT Kats to return their team to their rightful places. The last thing Razor did before leaving was to install the self destruct mechanism, show Colonel Dunswell how it worked and give him the detonator.

"Okay, that's it. T-Bone and I will hurry as fast as we can. I would suggest you all rest and eat before we get out of here in case this doesn't work out and we're reduced to going out on foot." With that, he and T-Bone hurried off the edge of the console then ran across the floor to the hole they'd made in the door, vanishing from view.

"So now we wait," Dumswell said. Everyone went to sit down and relax, pulling out their supplies.

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

It didn't take T-Bone and Razor long to reach their still dangling grappling lines.

"I really hope we don't have to get everyone down this thing again. The Dihannon might not be able to do it a second time," T-Bone commented as he and Razor prepared to zip up their grappling line.

"I'm with you there. I just hope I can make a hole in that damn door," Razor grunted in agreement.

They were up then down to the lower level in minutes. Not having anyone along to slow them, they made good time returning to their tunnel entry point. Here they stopped to take a much needed rest break but couldn't sit still longer than ten minutes before they were running through the low tunnel bent over.

"Ahh, crud, my back is killing me!" T-Bone growled when they finally reached the end and he could stretch upright again.

"Luckily, I'm not as tall as you. I don't hurt near as bad," Razor smirked as he raised his glovatrix again and tried to signal the jet. "Bingo! Got it! Should be coming here in about ten to fifteen minutes."

"Well that's good news. I'll be glad to sit down and fly, no more walking for awhile," T-Bone groaned, sitting down and rubbing his feet while they waited.

It took twelve minutes before the jet appeared above them. Razor set it on VTOL and had it lower to their level. Leaping onto the wing, they climbed into the cockpit with heartfelt relief.

"Now let's see if we can punch through that door, buddy."

"One big door coming up!" T-Bone called out as he switched the jet to forward flight and flew them to the front of the mountain.

The door was exactly how they'd left it with the outer door still hanging open. It was already full dark but T-Bone and Razor's heads up display allowed them to see the inner door clearly. The tabby put the jet on VTOL again and using the air jets, coasted them closer to the door but far enough back so they weren't hit by flying debris.

"Okay, let's see what will open this thing..." Razor muttered to himself as he picked a plain old missile first. "Firing!"

The missile struck and bounced off harmlessly. "Crud!" the gunner hissed then tried something else. For ten straight minutes, Razor tried many different missiles and when none worked, tried a combination of some of them. Finally, he punched a hole with a combination of the megalaser chased by a plain old missile.

"Crud, Razor! That's just barely big enough to get the jet through," T-Bone groused as he carefully navigated their plane into the narrow opening.

"That's the best I could do, buddy."

"Good thing I"m such a good pilot."

Razor just snorted and said nothing. At least they were inside at last. He raised his radio and called Feral.

Feral's radio toned, startling him. Blinking in surprise, he raised it to his mouth. "Feral!"

"We're in and on our way. Be ready!" Razor told him.

"Copy that!" Feral was thrilled. They were finally getting out of here.

He looked over at Hard Drive. The techno thief was still out of it though he was alive and his injuries had been taken care of. He ordered his ops to get ready to carry the tom.

It was like flying through an amusement park almost, T-Bone thought as he navigated through the huge complex. Since they'd come through an access pipe the first time, coming through the door put them in a totally different area. Using Feral's radio signal as a guide, Razor directed T-Bone where to go in the huge complex.

Unlike the control room, the area they traversed held remnants of those who'd lived here. Huge towering tables, book shelves filled with odd looking books that were still in pristine condition though heavily covered in dust, computers, bones of some immense creatures, odd murals on the walls, and many more things they had no clue what they were.

They sped past this obvious graveyard in silence. It took more than twenty minutes to get to the control room and here they paused.

"Well, at least we know a laser will open this thing so have at it buddy," T-Bone said, keeping the jet steady before the door.

"Which is the first good things that's happened to us so far," Razor snorted as he set the megalaser and began to cut into the door. Using it as a scalpel and with T-Bone moving the jet as needed, a large piece of the odd material was carved out easily, falling with a dull boom to the floor inside and stirring more dust into the air.

"Great job, Razor." T-Bone said as he flew the jet toward the console shelf.

They could see their fellow travelers jumping and cheering at the sight of them except for the more primitive of their companions who eyed the strange bird with some trepidation as it came close and landed. The rear of it lowered to reveal a large cavernous space.

Leading the group, Feral and Dunswell hurried them all inside. They soothed the more nervous Yik-Yik and Dihannon as they helped secure them in the hold.

Using the com on the wall, Feral was about to report them ready to take off when he was interrupted by the Lansoo.

"Please, we must retrieve our lost one."

Feral eyed it for a moment then amended what he was going to say. "We are all aboard but the Lansoo would like to retrieve their dead companion. I guess we should do the same for the others."

"Understood," T-Bone acknowledged, soberly. He closed the cargo door, sent the jet upward then lowered it slowly to the floor.

Quickly, several of the group went out and, using some tarps Feral had found, wrapped the bodies and carried them back inside, leaving them against a wall near the door. Feral gave the go head again to T-Bone and they lifted skyward once more. He flew back the way they'd come to the main door, glad no one inside the hold could see the depressing desolation on the path there.

They were soon out in the night sky and heading for where they'd left the hover craft. Another quick stop and load up and they were soon on their way again.

"Okay, we need to know who goes where so I'll go down and get directions," Razor told his partner then climbed down to the cargo hold. "So I need directions to your homes..." he said to those waiting below.

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

Callie stared out the window as this world's brighter sun dipped below the mountains, biting her lip in anxious worry. Another day had ended and still no sign nor word from Feral's team. She prayed the night would remain quiet and trouble-free and that the morning would bring them good news.

Suddenly, a young officer raced through the door and to her side, his face beaming with excitement. "Ms. Briggs! Ma'am, we're receiving a message from the SWAT Kats!"

"At last!" She said, heading out of Feral's office for the communication's room. As she hurried in the door, she heard Commander Feral speaking to his third in command.

"Commander, did you succeed?" She asked, interrupting the conversation.

"Ms. Briggs? Yes, we did. We had some allies and are presently dropping them off at their homes. Will be back there in about two hours. Explain more when I get there."

"Thank you and a safe journey back," she said, nearly limp with relief. The room around her had erupted with loud cheers and people clapping each other on the back. Hope had returned!


	14. Chapter 13

**A/N: I wasn't very happy with my ending so decided to rework it and add another chapter. Hope it reads better now and isn't so abrupt.**

**VANISHED**

Chapter 13: Dark Kat's Biggest Miscalculation

The dawning of a new day on Aristal was a bleak one. Mayor Manx huddled in his bed, afraid to get up as he just knew things would be even worse today than yesterday when he received the news that Dark Kat seemed to be planning a major assault on what was left of the city.

However, hiding wouldn't save him and Major Clawmore would just come in here and pull him out anyway. Moaning, he shoved his bedding off and climbed, reluctantly out of the warm covers and made for the bathroom.

Some thirty minutes later, he was drinking tea and crackers at his desk in the study of his home. His stomach rebelled at the idea of anything more substantial right now. As he expected, his study door opened and in walked Major Clawmore, face grim, a piece of paper gripped in his paw.

"Mayor Manx, I just received a message from one of my sentry posts. Dark Kat has been sighted with a huge army of walking spider vehicles, his revamped fear ship flying above them, heading for downtown apparently making for where city hall used to be."

"What? Why would he do something stupid like that? There's nothing there but holes in the ground," Manx asked, bewildered and angry.

Clawmore shrugged. "Who knows what that insane omega is thinking. I have a hunch it's to make a statement and a stand against my meager forces. It's symbolic. Beat us then build a new empire atop the old."

"Sounds like something that megalomaniac might do," Manx moaned, burying his head in his paws. Raising it a moment later, he asked, bleakly, "so I assume you are ready to meet him head on?"

The enforcer nodded gravely. "Nothing more I can do and remember, we do still have that robot on our side. Don't know if that will be enough but I won't give up trying to protect our city, sir."

"I know you won't but it seems such a waste to lose your life and lose the city anyway," Manx said, despair in his voice and eyes.

Clawmore didn't try to correct the tom. After all, it was only the truth. They really didn't stand a chance in hell of winning.

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

Callie stood on the flight when the welcome sight of the SWAT Kats replacement jet appeared then landed some minutes later.

A tired Feral, what was left of his ops team, the scientists, Dr. Viper, the SWAT Kats and an unconscious Hard Drive being carried out on a stretcher, walked down the cargo ramp of the jet. Callie's eyes flicked to the wrapped body just inside the hold and sighed. At least their losses hadn't been that bad though even losing one was disheartening.

Shaking off her melancholy, she impulsively hugged the SWAT Kats and even Feral who looked a bit stunned at the greeting.

"I am soo glad you're back. When do we go home?" She asked getting down to business quickly.

Feral made a 'wait a minute' gesture as he turned to Major Preston standing next to her. He frowned at seeing the major sporting bandages and a bruised face but would wait till later to get the officer's report. More important things needed done first.

"Take Viper to a cell and have Hard Drive taken to the medical center. He suffered some kind of attack when in his electron form and hasn't regained consciousness since. Give our other guests somewhere to rest and eat but they are not to leave."

The scientists gave Feral stunned and outraged looks but weren't given the chance to protest as Major Preston nodded his understanding and barked quick orders to his small squad that immediately surrounded the small group and hustled them into the building.

Turning back to Ms. Briggs who had waited patiently for him to finish, Feral said, "we'll be returning home within two hours, Callie. We need to send a broadcast, warning everyone that we're going home and..." Callie held up a paw to halt him. He blinked at her in surprise.

"No. Definitely not! Such news could cause serious problems within each evacuation center. Just think...the moment they learn we're home, there will be a mass attempt to exit all at the same time. In their blind need to get out, many will be hurt...maybe even killed in the exodus. So...no...none of them will be told. We want an orderly release and traffic control. Can you imagine the traffic jams as they all try to leave the parking lots of the evac centers," she told him, a shudder at the thought racing down her spine.

Feral groaned and felt like smacking himself. He should have thought of that himself, but he was just so damned tired. He was grateful she still had her wits about her even though he could see she was in no better shape than he.

"Kat's Alive! So glad you're able to still think since I don't seem to be doing so well at it. Thank you. No broadcast...you're right. But there is something we do need to do...notify the command teams at each center of what is about to happen so they can be prepared to stave off a possible riot when some of the people spot we're home by looking at the changed sky."

"Don't beat yourself up Ulysses, I've been dealing with this situation so I'm more aware of what we need to do. You did the bigger job...getting us home. And notifying the command teams is an excellent idea and one we have just enough time to accomplish," she agreed.

She, Feral, and the SWAT Kats hurried off the flight line and walked down the stairs to the communication's center. Feral called for paper and pen and sat down at a nearby desk to write up the order. Callie added some touches of her own to the order then her signature before Feral handed it off to a secretary to quickly type up and copy. Enforcer runners had been summoned and the order was quickly on its way to all the evac centers.

With that done, Callie stared at the three toms. Feral's eyes were closed as his head rested on a raised palm at the table he was still sitting at while the SWAT Kats were leaning against a nearby wall looking like they could slid down it any minute.

Shaking her head, she said loudly to get Feral's attention. "Ulysses, why did you insist the scientists remain here instead of escorting them back to Pumadyne?"

Feral raised his head and stared at her blearily, taking a moment to absorb what she said. "They have to be debriefed and we're far too tired to do that right now, so they stay."

"Oh, good idea. As for being tired, the three of you should catch a nap before the event occurs," she urged.

All three shook their heads. "As much as that appeals to me, I want to just lay down and not get up for days," Feral sighed, rubbing his face.

"Humph! If I lay down now, nothing will get me up again," T-Bone asserted. Razor just yawned.

Callie sighed and shook her head. "I know, I feel exactly the same way however, you've forgotten something. Getting home only solves part of our troubles. Remember we know where Dr. Viper and Hard Drive are but not Turmoil and Dark Kat. So it's possible our arrival might land us in a war being fought right this minute."

Looks of dismay flashed across the tired warrior's faces. "Crud, she's right. This would be the perfect moment for Dark Kat to strike. Not so sure about Turmoil but DK, definitely," Razor hissed n angry frustration.

"Crap, okay, maybe a short nap will recharge us enough so we aren't too punch drunk on arrival," T-Bone grudgingly agreed.

Feral blinked and eyed Callie strangely.

"What?"

"I don't think I've ever seen this side of you before and I find I like it. You've been a real trooper since this all began and still are thinking ahead. This emergency has shown me just how resourceful you are and how well you handle adversity. Too bad you aren't the mayor...the city would be better off," he said with a lopsided grin.

Callie blushed at the unexpected compliment from the normally taciturn Commander. "I've learned you're not so bad yourself, Ulysses and do your job far better than I ever gave you credit for."

He just shrugged. "The reports on this incident should make interesting reading. I especially want to find out why my Major Preston looks so beat up and how you fared keeping the Katizens from revolting," he said with a smile then he got up and headed for the door.

"Come on, you two," he said, making a follow me gesture," I'll show you where you can crash for a bit." The tired pair of vigilantes said nothing as they trudged out the door after the dark tom.

Callie had a small smile on her face as she turned away to continue her work. She had a good feeling that when they returned home things would be very different between her and Feral and between Feral and the SWAT Kats. Perhaps, now they could protect the city with less of the friction they used to have among them all.

Sighing, she pushed those thoughts aside. 'We're not home yet,' she chastised herself, 'so get your head back to work.'

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

Major Clawmore stared grimly at the fast approaching army. He had his meager forces ranged in a ragged line along the demarcation that was the intact portion of the city, the jagged edge of the missing half was behind him.

If the missing half were to return suddenly, he didn't want anyone, least of all his own enforcers and his add-on army to be squashed in grisly fashion by the buildings coming down on them.

However, it would be poetic if Dark Kat was the one under there when that happened, however, as wonderful as that thought was, there was no guarantee the city would return before the omega decimated his forces then marched over them to take the city.

So he had to play the hand he was dealt and act as if the city would not return and that meant standing here facing off with the worst omega they knew and doing his damnedest to keep him at bay, no matter how useless that effort might be.

Within fifteen minutes the war was engaged, his small army immediately on the defensive, using every available cover they could to keep themselves safe and harrying Dark Kat's forces with everything they had.

While the omega was totally focused on wiping them out, only then did the major summon the robot who was hiding behind a smokestack not far away and behind Dark Kat's forces. It moved so swiftly, it seemed to magically appear and wasted no time ripping into the enemy, methodically tossing the spider vehicles miles away from the fight and doing a heck of a job reducing DK's army.

Dark Kat was furious at this sudden sneak attack, spinning his fear ship around so he could deal with this new threat with his own more powerful weapons. His first strikes staggered the robot but didn't take it down.

Heartened by this, Major Clawmore pressed his advantage and had his troops decimate or knock out as many of the ground troops of the enemy as they could, unfortunately, it just wasn't enough.

The omega had planned well and his army was huge, so despite taking out more than a dozen spider ships and some hundred foot soldiers, they were still overwhelmed. To prevent losing all his forces, Clawmore quickly called a retreat and pulled them back to take refuge in the outer buildings once more before they were wiped out completely.

From a safe outpost, Clawmore watched, bitterly, as Dark Kat finally managed to take the robot's legs out from under it and hamstrung it so it couldn't get up again too soon. This was very bad for the defenders.

Triumphant, Dark Kat looked around and found he was still in control of the battle and quickly ordered his troops forward, smashing what was left of the resistance and charging into the lost zone. His first goal was the enforcer's armory then heading for all the other valuable targets such as the mint, city hall, Pumadyne, the nuclear plant, and others.

Within the hour, he would rule this city at last. He didn't know what happened to the heart of the city nor did he care. It's absence just meant he could gain control that much easier. And better yet, no Feral or SWAT Kats around to stop him.

The battle was all but over when Dark Kat marched his army into the lost zone. Major Clawmore didn't have enough of a force left to do more than annoy the omega but if that was all he could do, he had to do it, however before he could gather his forces something he hoped for happened.

A bright blink lit the world a moment then suddenly the missing part of the city was there again. Clawmore and his forces stared in amazed shock at the sight they never thought to see again. It took Clawmore a second to realize Dark Kat's forces had been directly under the returning city but looking around, he could see no sign they'd ever been there...no blood, no broken machines...nothing.

"Sir, nothing damaged!" a young officer blurted from beside him.

Clawmore stared harder and found he was right. The building had been ripped from their places but now there was no sign that anything had happened at all. Roads, foundations, sidewalks, trees, poles, glass...absolutely nothing was damaged or destroyed. It was just like when one of the Pastmaster's spells were defeated...everything would turn to normal. Only thing different was the eerie sound of silence.

"Where is everybody?" the same young officer asked in a hushed voice.

That was a good question.

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

Though she hated to wake them, she had promised so sent Major Preston to wake the SWAT Kats and Feral as zero hour approached for their return home.

Still exhausted, their short nap not having done anything to ease their exhaustion, the three took seats in Feral's office and stared out the window...waiting. Callie and Major Preston had joined them. No one felt like talking.

The clock on the wall seemed to mock them as the minutes seemed to crawl by. T-Bone stopped watching it as it just drove him crazy. His eyes were heavy and he was about to fall asleep again when there was a gasp from someone in the room. His eyes flew open and the welcome, familiar sky of home shone down on them from the windows.

"Yes!" he shouted, jumping up from the couch, energy renewed at the thought of finally going home to a shower, food, and his own bed. Razor was jumping for joy.

But there was one thing they had to do first. As one, the small group, headed out of the office and were about to make for the stairs when Razor decided to stop at the elevator and pressed the button. Curious, the rest stopped and waited to see if anything would happen.

To everyone's surprise and delight, the elevator appeared and dinged, the doors opening as if nothing had happened.

"But how? Our buildings were torn away. How could they now appear as if nothing whatever had happened to them?" Feral demanded to no one in particular.

As they loaded aboard the elevator, Razor said, thoughtfully, "I can only speculate that the machine simply returned us to the precise moment before it had stolen us hence nothing would have occurred at all."

Feral frowned in thought on the way down but when the doors snapped opened and he could see the totally undamaged lobby and the perfect street outside the lobby doors, he was forced to concede Razor's guess was probably correct. The group hurried to the doors, stepped out and walked down the stairs as they looked around. Behind them came all the enforcers who had been with them on this harrowing trip.

Exclamations of shocked amazement filled the air, including a stunned comment by T-Bone.

"Well, blow me over with a feather! I think you're right buddy and look how eerily quiet it is too."

"Well, it would be as our Katizens are still at their evacuation centers," Callie said. "Commander, I think you'd better send some troops out quickly to help the command teams asap before the people realize were home."

"Absolutely, let me call..." Feral began to say, raising his radio then halting in surprise as he spotted the appearance of a rag tag force racing toward them.

The SWAT Kats and enforcers immediately took a defensive posture but relaxed their stance moments later, when it became obvious these were more enforcers, the ones left behind that were approaching them.

"Major Clawmore, sir, " the major said briskly, saluting. Feral returned it and nodded for the officer to speak. "So very glad to see you, and the city returned, sir. Welcome home. I have good news for you!"

"I could certainly use some."

"Dark Kat had attacked us with the intention of taking over the city but he miscalculated. He must have thought the city wouldn't return so didn't think anything of charging into the area once he'd taken out nearly all my forces. Those I had left, I kept away from the Lost Zone and was just planning to harry Dark Kat from behind when the city suddenly reappeared..."

"Oh yuck! Now that's an image I didn't want in my head," Callie grimaced, looking a little green.

"Hell yes!" T-Bone cheered, pumping his fist into the air. "It may have been a nasty way to go but now he's permanently out of our fur!"

"I agree. Makes the return home even sweeter," Feral grinned, pleased. "However, not to be morbid, where the heck is any traces of them?" He'd already looked around and saw no traces of the enemy.

"I can only guess that our return caused Dark Kat to be shoved out of the way as two objects can't occupy the same space so as we reappeared, Dark Kat and his army must have just been displaced into a nearby dimension to make room for us. I don't think we'll find them squashed under the buildings at all. But one thing is for certain, that crud is gone for good!"

"That's wonderful news and cause for a big celebration!" Callie grinned from ear to ear. All around her the listening forces let out a ragged cheer.

"I second that!" Feral added, his voice drowned out by his happy troops. Shaking his head and grinning, he pulled Major Preston close to him so he could speak in the tom's ear. "Major Preston, get our forces to the evac points on the double. Let's get our people home quickly and safely."

"Yes, sir. Be happy too!" Preston was grinning from ear to ear as he saluted and raised his radio, so happy he didn't have to physically run off to take care of this.


	15. Chapter 14

**VANISHED**

Chapter 14: Epilogue

Mayor Manx stared gloomily out his study window. He could just barely hear the booms of explosions and see the smoke of the hopeless fight going on in the distance. He had no idea what he would do if Dark Kat finished his business and came looking for him.

Why that creepy tom felt the need to have the present Mayor actually hand over the city, just didn't make sense to Manx. He needed to think where and how he could he away before that happened.

Suddenly, his worried thoughts were interrupted by a bright blink and his precious city reappeared. He jumped to his feet sending his chair backward as he leaned into the window and gaped. He was terribly afraid it was an illusion but the longer he stared the more certain he was it wasn't a mirage.

"Yes!" He yelled, raising both paws into the air and yelling. His butler came running in concern.

"Sir...are you alright?"

Manx came around his desk and hugged the startled tom. "They're back! Feral did it and my city is back!" He shouted with glee. He pulled the butler to the window.

"Oh my! How wonderful, sir!"

Have my car brought around! Hurry! I've got to see this in person!"

"Yes, sir...right away!" The butler hurried off.

Manx grabbed his jacket and hurried out of his study, down the stairs and out the front door of his home. His limo was just pulling up. Not waiting for the driver to open the door he yanked it open and jumped inside.

"Take me to city hall as fast as you can, Jeffery."

"Yes, sir." The driver drove as fast as he dared and made it to the newly restored city hall just twenty minutes later. When he stopped the car, the two of them could see people milling around, a mix of enforcers and civilians.

Manx jumped out and called aloud, "Callie? Where are you?"

Ms. Briggs was standing on the front steps of city hall speaking with the few members of council that had been with her. She'd gotten a ride from one of Feral's enforcers to bring her here while he took care of getting the Katizens home safely. Meanwhile, she wanted to hold a meeting as soon as possible to trade information and plan for the recovery of those that had suffered the harsh conditions of their kidnapping. Thankfully, they weren't talking about too many Katizens but still they had to get this taken care of before anyone got it into their head to sue.

Suddenly she heard a familiar voice calling her name just before a roly poly form pushed its way through the crowd to her side.

"Callie!" Mayor Manx cried and hugged her fiercely.

"Mayor Manx, so good to see you are alright. Anything happen here?"

Manx pulled away and stared at his deputy mayor. She looked like she'd been through far more than he had and was exhausted.

"We were doing alright. I'm grateful for Major Clawmore who wasn't here when the city left. That's one singularly brave Kat and a good leader. When we learned there were very few enforcers left to us, he went out and recruited security and mercenaries he could he get to help protect what we called the Lost Zone, the empty place the city had been. Things were fairly quiet until Dark Kat appeared and tried to take over the city. But...where is he?" Manx stopped to ask, looking frantically around. There seemed to be no sign of the omega or even the war he knew was being fought here.

His mouth dropped open when he really took a look at his city. "Why there's no sign the city was even taken?" He blurted in shock.

"Yes, well Razor seems to think that the alien machinery that took us just returned us a few minutes before we left so no damage was done. As for Dark Kat well, it seems he was definitely in the wrong place at the wrong time when we reappeared. He's gone for good."

"Oh that's wonderful news...but...but... Major Clawmore..."

"Oh, he's alright, Mayor. He and what soldiers he still had didn't step foot into what you called the Lost Zone."

Manx sighed in relief. "Well, then that's good. What about Feral and the SWAT Kats...did they survive?"

"Oh yes. If it weren't for them, some special ops, scientists and even Viper and Hard Drive. We wouldn't even be here."

"Vvviper and Hard Drive? You're joking?"

"Nope, they volunteered. Viper is in jail unharmed but Hard Drive did something truly dangerous and is unconscious. He's gone to the hospital for treatment."

"Well, it certainly seems you have a lot of tales to tell but right now, what do we need to do this minute? I can tell you're done in and should go home. Does Feral look as bad?"

"I'm afraid so, as is everyone that was there so a good portion of the city is going to sleep for days so I hope it stays peaceful. As for what we have to do now, glad you asked," Callie said, putting an arm around the Mayor's shoulders and guiding him and the council back inside city hall.

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

As Callie predicted, most of the city slept for days. The ones that had been locked up due to their bad behavior were taken to jail and held until more of the enforcers were alert enough to deal with them.

Mayor Manx found he was still handling many of the details of the reintegration of the city but didn't complain. He was far too grateful just to have his city back. One of the first things he did was hold a press conference. He told them only the little he knew and promised more when all the ones who had returned were able to rest first. But one of the most important things he had to say caused the news hounds to leapt for joy...the permanent loss of Dark Kat. He knew that should perk up the city more than any other news to come out of this strange incident.

The reintegration wasn't without its strife. Fights broke out, pushing and shoving nearly caused major harm but because of the heavy enforcer presence, Major Preston and Major Clawmore managed to retain control and get people cleared out and home before the rest of the city invaded and made a bigger mess of things.

Those needing medical assistance were carried off to area hospitals for treatment. The enforcers left stranded behind volunteered to cover the city beat while their lost companions got the chance to rest, eat, and recover their strength after the arduous adventure.

After doing what they could to help the enforcers to settle the Katizens back in their homes, ferrying the criminals locked in the animal cages to jail and anything else that was needed to settle the city, the SWAT Kats finally went home as the sun was going down.

"Gods, I don't remember when I was this tired," Chance groaned, dragging his tail up the stairs to their apartment.

"Uhg, I want to sleep for weeks and that's unusual for me." Jake's words were slurring, he was that tired.

Chance just grunted a response to that as he went into his room and slipped into bed, sighing with relief. When he got up again, he'd take a shower...he was far too groggy to do it now.

Across the city, Feral too was so tired he was swaying on his feet as he finished giving out orders for those that would take care of the city while he slept.

Major Clawmore gently touched his Commander's shoulder. "Sir?"

"Huh?" Feral jerked, realizing groggily that he'd actually fallen asleep for a second while standing up. "Oh, yes. Thank you." A huge yawn interrupted whatever else he might have wanted to say.

"Sir, forget it. Let me personally escort you to bed," Clawmore said, mildly amused to see his Commander literally sleep walking and unable to put two words together. Like right now...he doubted the huge tom was even aware he was being guided away from his office. He carefully steered Feral all the way to the barracks and the room he used when he stayed at headquarters.

He had to physically undress the Commander whose body was very impressive to his eyes and push the somnolent body toward the bed and under the covers. Feral was no longer aware of anything as he'd long since given up trying to stay awake.

Smiling, Clawmore closed the door and went off to complete his tasks before seeking his own bed. He'd had to force Major Preston to go to bed as well so all that was left around headquarters were the meager complement of enforcers that had been left behind to take care of things for now.

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

It would take more than a month before anything felt normal again but eventually a sort of peaceful calm settled over Megakat City at last.

Hard Drive recovered, though it took a long time. Doctors were uncertain as to what had happened to him but plenty of bed rest soon returned him to health. The trip to another dimension had changed him and despite all the thanks he'd received as part of the rescue team, he no longer felt comfortable in Megakat City and one day simply disappeared never to be heard or seen again.

Dr. Liter Greenbox had redeemed himself and was released from jail by Mayor Manx and allowed to research and invent again though he had to accept being kept under watchful eyes to ensure he didn't stray off the path again.

Dr. Viper was disgusted and angry as he was forced to accept being jailed. Though he had helped to return the city, he was not to be trusted and spent quite a few months in jail before finally escaping.

When Manx learned of Director Mece's invaluable assistance to the rescue team that had gotten the city home again, he saw that the tom was given an award for his service to the city and funds to help build more weapons especially earmarked for use by the enforcers. Manx had finally learned his lesson and stopped cutting the budget so stringently for the enforcers much to Feral's surprised relief.

Callie and Major Preston did finally date. Though it was Preston who succeeded in weakening Callie's resolve not to date anyone beneath her social strata so as not to cause problems. He convinced her that she deserved and had a right to see whomever she wanted. She enjoyed his company and they remained together for quite some time.

Feral had relaxed his stance on the SWAT Kats though he had to be careful not to outright show acceptance of the two vigilantes but he couldn't forget their bravery and fortitude when things were truly bad. With some of the omegas still around, he no longer spurned their assistance in ending things more quickly than usual giving the city longer periods of quiet.

Pleased with Major Clawmore's performance as well as Major Preston's, he got them both promoted. Clawmore insisted on keeping his present job, enjoying it far more than the one pressed on him by necessity. Major Preston was put on the fast track at eventually being Feral's second in command. He was very pleased and honored by the confidence his commander had in him.

Feral had a small epiphany when he had a moment to think without interruption about his adventures in that other world. He's reached the top of his field and had no desire to go further, much preferring being on the front lines however, he was bit lonely. Deciding getting himself taken care of should be his priority right now, he began to do the club circuit, getting it on with both male and females. It provided him a peace in his soul he'd never realized he was missing.

The SWAT Kats for their part, were ever so grateful at having their real jet back and all their equipment. Chance took the Turbokat for a lengthy run alone, just enjoying flying over his home again. Meanwhile, Jake didn't forget how much of his inventions he'd been forced to give away to the Pumadyne techs. Now he would have to come up with something that would push the Turbokat ahead of the pack again.

He needed to keep his edge so he spent nearly all his free time inventing and building more new tech for them. Chance would find his partner buried for hours in the hangar inventing. He would sigh, bring the slim tom food and do his part in building what his partner made. It was the way of things.

Yeah, things were back to normal, sort of, but the changes were for the better and Megakat City and its special Katizens, were happy with that.


End file.
